MP: ‘Trans-ideology is polluting politics and democracy’

Authoritarian trans-ideologues pose a threat to our democratic freedoms, a long-serving Labour MP has warned.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Graham Stringer – who served in government under Tony Blair – argued that the “trans-ideology movement” was shutting down legitimate political debate.

The MP for Blackley and Broughton referred to a recent report by the Institute of Economic Affairs, in which political transgenderism had been denounced as “an ideological assault” against liberal democracy.

Cancel culture

Stringer explained: “Asked for my view on the transgender question at a recent meeting of my local Labour Party, the answer I gave was simple: any definition of sex has to be based on biology.

“A female has two X chromosomes, and a male has one X and one Y chromosome, which I had assumed was merely a straightforward fact. But the response from one Labour member was that I was a brave man.”

Reflecting on the interaction, he observed: “Even stating a scientific truth can be so controversial as to lead to your cancellation.”

The trans-ideology movement, he mused, “has developed a cancel culture, where opponents are denied a platform and attempts are made to deny them their livelihood”.

‘Anti-scientific’

Stringer, an MP since 1997, said that under the banner of transgender ideology, “Anti-scientific views are also promulgated widely.

“My colleague, the Labour MP Dawn Butler, stated on TV that ‘a child is born without sex’. This is the equivalent of saying 2+2=0. Every cell in a baby’s body carries the definition of its sex.”

More worryingly, he continued, by ignoring biological facts and allowing men to self-ID as women, safe spaces for women have been compromised.

And “people who don’t think that biological males should be allowed in these ‘safe’ spaces are regularly labelled transphobes and Terfs”.

Free speech

He warned that “the attempt to shut down debate” and intimidate those prepared to defend biological reality “has even reached Parliament”.

“This issue”, he responded, “has polluted our politics and democracy enough. We should remember a quote from Orwell: ‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.’”