Theresa May has clashed with Boris Johnson over the Prime Minister’s refusal to ban transgender conversion therapy.
Mr Johnson announced a Conversion Therapy Bill in May to ban “conversion therapy practices intended to change sexual orientation”. It comes after a Tory pledge first made by Theresa May in 2018.
But key parts of her pledge were left out. The ban will not cover trans people after a Tory U-turn, and debates between LGBT+ campaigners and ‘gender critical’ activists who warn about irreversible changes for teenagers.
Boris Johnson ’s spokesman refused to promise a trans conversion therapy ban, with the government saying it would “recognise the complexity of issues and the need for further careful thought”.
Writing in the i for the 50th anniversary of the UK's first Pride, Mrs May said: "Few people, reading of accounts from trans people, would disagree that they still face indignities and prejudice, when they deserve understanding and respect.
"We need to strive for greater understanding on both sides of the debate. Just because an issue is controversial, that doesn't mean we can avoid addressing it.
"To that end, the Government must keep to its commitment to consider the issue of transgender conversion therapy.
"If it is not to be in the upcoming Bill, then the matter must not be allowed to slide."
The proposed Bill - which is not yet law - has also come under fire for only banning adults from being "coerced or forced" to undergo conversion therapy.
That means those who persuade people to choose the process of their free will be obeying the law.
That is despite ministers branding conversion therapy “abhorrent” and vowing to ban it for under-18s, forced or not.
Mrs May said she regretted her past opposition to LGBT equality, having voted against reducing the age of consent for homosexual acts in 1998 and against the repeal of section 28 in 2002.
She said that, 50 years after campaigners were subject to abuse and ridicule, "we can take pride in how much, and how profoundly, attitudes have changed".
"I include myself in that - looking back now, there are issues I would have voted on differently, were I to vote on them today," she added.
On Wednesday a Scottish Tory criticised the Government for excluding transgender people from the proposed ban, branding the move "indefensible".
Speaking at a PinkNews reception at the Scottish Parliament, Jamie Greene MSP hit out at comments made by Boris Johnson towards trans women.
Mr Greene said: "I'm not a member of the UK Government first of all - I want to make that clear - and it's not my job to defend the indefensible."
He said the Conservatives had made a "very explicit" commitment to include trans people in the ban, adding: "We made a commitment to the LGBTQ+ community that we would ban conversion therapy. We should fulfil that promise and the Scottish Government should do exactly the same.
"We should do it here, we should do it in Westminster, we should do it in Wales, we should do it in Northern Ireland."
