Kemi Badenoch: ‘Govt allowed Stonewall to boss it around over gender ideology’

The Government must never again let “activist groups” such as Stonewall dictate policy, the Minister for Women and Equalities has warned.

Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship 2023 conference, Kemi Badenoch said ministers proceeded on the “wrong track on gender ideology” because it pandered to activist organisations such as Stonewall which were “pretending to be neutral”.

She criticised Stonewall’s overreach in “giving people legal advice or advice that was certainly different from what the Equality Act said”, and said the Government should do more in “challenging activist groups that take over institutions”.

NHS

In August, Health Minister Will Quince cautioned NHS England trusts against succumbing to Stonewall capture, after a Daily Mail investigation uncovered the involvement of the LGBT lobby group in writing gender policies for dozens of NHS trusts in England.

The Daily Mail exposed the hand of Stonewall in guidance produced by 30 trusts, and 65 respondents to Freedom of Information requests made by the newspaper said they admitted men who claimed to be women to female-only wards.

During an interview with Times Radio, Quince warned: “We can never put ideology over facts and indeed the concerns of patients and staff.”

‘Misleading’

In 2021, the University of Essex was warned that it had misrepresented the law on transgender issues due to its connection to Stonewall.

In a report, barrister Akua Reindorf highlighted “potential illegalities” in the university’s policy on supporting trans and non-binary members, which contravened the Equality Act 2010.

She said: “This policy is founded on an erroneous understanding of the law. The policy is reviewed annually by Stonewall and its incorrect summary of the law does not appear to have been picked up by them.

“In my view the policy states the law as Stonewall would prefer it to be, rather than the law as it is. To that extent the policy is misleading.”