Rishi Sunak Faces Backlash for Joking About Trans Issues in Parliament

Rishi Sunak, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, is facing criticism and calls for an apology after making a joke about Labour‘s stance on transgender rights while the mother of murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was in Parliament. The incident occurred during a session of Prime Minister’s Questions, where Sunak mocked Labour leader Keir Starmer for his alleged U-turn on the ‘definition of a woman’. While No 10 defended Sunak’s remarks as ‘legitimate’, Brianna’s father, Peter Spooner, called the comments ‘degrading’ and urged the Chancellor to apologize.

The row began when Sunak listed a series of policy reversals by the Labour party and claimed that Starmer had changed his position on ‘defining a woman’, quipping that it was ‘only 99% of a U-turn’. This referred to a previous statement made by Starmer, who had said that ‘99.9% of women haven’t got a penis’. Starmer immediately chastised Sunak, stating that making such comments when Brianna’s mother, Esther Ghey, was present in the chamber was inappropriate and shameful.

Brianna’s mother was attending a debate on mindfulness in schools when the incident occurred, just a few days after her daughter’s killers were sentenced to life in prison. Although Sunak did not apologize when prompted by Labour MP Liz Twist, he later commended Brianna’s mother for her compassion in the face of the tragedy. A meeting between Brianna’s family and the Prime Minister, as well as the Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, has been arranged to discuss online safety.

While some Conservative MPs defended Sunak, others, including Dehenna Davison, Elliot Colburn, and Jamie Wallis, criticized the Chancellor’s remarks as insensitive and called for respectful dialogue on the topic of transgender rights. Meanwhile, Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of exploiting the issue for political gain and trivializing Brianna’s tragic murder.