Leaked footage has jrevealed prime minister Rishi Sunak mocking trans women while speaking to Conservative MPs earlier this month.
The video, published by PinkNews on Sunday, shows the prime minister allegedly speaking to the backbench Tory MPs who make up the powerful 1922 committee.
Sunak can be heard taking aim at Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who defended the trans community back in May.
When asked by LBC host Nick Ferrari if women can have penises, Davey replied that the law recognises the existence of trans women – so “quite clearly” it was possible for women to have penises.
The Lib Dem leader also called for more empathy when talking about the trans community, saying: “There’s a small number of people who, actually, they have a tough time. They’re harassed, they’re discriminated against; real, serious mental health issues, and I think we need to debate this...with a bit more maturity and a bit more compassion.”
Sunak made a reference to this interview – but omitted the call for compassion – when speaking to the 1922 members on June 5, when around 100 MPs were reportedly in attendance.
In the footage, he can be heard saying: “You have noticed that Ed Davey has been very busy. Like me, you’ve probably seen that he’s been busy trying to convince everybody that women clearly have penises.
“I was reflecting, and you all know I’m a big fan of everybody studying maths to 18.
“But it turns out that we need to focus on biology to 18 as well!”
Here’s the clip, as shared by PinkNews’ managing editor Nic Keaney on Twitter:
While those in the room laughed, Sunak’s comments sparked outrage once they were been leaked to the wider public.
The person who gave the footage to PinkNews said: “The veneer of freedom of speech publicly is one thing but to make jokes in private, it’s another thing altogether.
“You wouldn’t make jokes about other marginalised people the way he did about trans people.”
They added that amid the laughter, there were “quite a few” younger people in the crowd who looked “visibly uncomfortable”.
This isn’t the first time Sunak has opposed the trans community. In April, he said that “100% of women do not have penises” when speaking to the website ConservativeHome.
It’s thought this was a response to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s previous claim that “for 99.9% of women, it is completely biological, and of course, they haven’t got a penis”.
The prime minister has also said he will legally change the definition of sex in the Equality Act to exclude the transgender community from single-sex spaces.
He used a Section 35 order to block Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Act earlier this year, too. This was meant to make it easier for the trans community to get legal recognition without needing a medical diagnosis first.
Stonewall chief executive Nancy Kelley said Sunak should apologise, adding: “No community should be the butt of a joke. It is incredibly disappointing that the prime minister chose to mock trans people in front of his parliamentary colleagues.
“This is a far cry from his pledge to govern with compassion and would be unacceptable in any modern workplace. The PM should apologise for his actions.”