Former equalities chief says trans activists ‘targeted me and my family’ with vile threats

Susanna Siddell
Sun, 12 Apr 2026 11:38:45 +0000

A former equalities chief has opened up how she and her family were "targeted" by pro-trans activists with vile threats.

Baroness Falkner, who served as chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for three years, said she faced a barrage of abuse - and was even branded a Nazi by internet trolls - after she withdrew the body from Stonewall's Diversity Champions scheme in 2021.

The LGBT rights charity demands that members must agree that transgender women are genuinely women.

As a result, the 71-year-old was the target of horrific abuse, with incensed protesters catapulting furious insults at the Baroness, her husband as well as her daughter.

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“At a personal level, I felt threatened,” she admitted to The Telegraph.

"I felt I had to take precautions about using public transport," she said, adding she refused to be "deterred by fear from doing what is right".

If protesters thought she would cower into submission, the ex-EHRC boss boldly declared: "I'm afraid they picked on the wrong person."

Two years later in 2023, Baroness Falkner faced 12 accusations of bullying and harassment by serving and former staff.

Ms Falkner was accused of ruling over a "toxic culture" by performing transgressions, such as rolling her eyes and writing notes about the quality of research conducted by her staff members.

But some of those who made the allegations against the Baroness, she said, were "captured" by activist groups, including the likes of Stonewall.

While civil servants are permitted to be a part of campaign groups, strict rules are laid out for Whitehall workers to maintain political impartiality, set out in the Civil Service Code.

The extensive inquiry lasted eight months, leaving the peer with £30,000 of legal bills, before the then-Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch stepped in.

In the end, the investigation was thrown out in October 2023 and the women's rights advocate offered a "full apology" - but the case, she said, left a lasting wound.

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The disputing board settled to foot the bill for the majority of the legal fees as well.

Since her resignation in November 2025, Baroness Falkner has also taken aim at Whitehall's current political elite, taking aim at Labour for its position over trans and women's rights.

In April of that same year, Britain's top judges declared the term "woman" refers to biological sex, rather than gender identity, igniting mass disgruntlement across the pro-trans community.

As such, the Government - including Baroness Falkner - was tasked with jotting up what the guidance would mean for day-to-day single-sex spaces, from gendered toilets to changing rooms, women's only groups and gyms, for instance.

Meanwhile, the publication of such guidance was put on hold by Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson.

The Baroness subsequently accused Ms Phillipson of putting off the guidance's release over concerns its publication would jeopardise her future career prospects.

She went on to accuse ministers of being "entirely captured by the activist misinterpretation of the law" - with human rights lawyer Sir Keir Starmer leading the way.

"You have a Government led by a lawyer, yet he’s unable to uphold the law in its most visible form, which is statutory guidance produced by a regulator – an independent regulator – of that law," she told the Telegraph.