'We can't just make stuff up!' Kemi Badenoch slams Labour MP for 'lying' in furious trans clash
Badenoch warns of an 'epidemic' of young gay children 'being told they are trans'
Kemi Badenoch accused a Labour MP of lying during a fiery exchange at the Women and Equalities Select Committee yesterday.
She accused Kate Osborne of "lying", after the MP accused Baenoch of using "inflammatory language that likens children and young people coming out as trans to the spread of a disease".
But hitting back at Osborne, the Women and Equalities Minister said: "I have never said that, that is a lie.
"That is a lie and I think you should withdraw that statement.
Kemi Badenoch accused a Labour MP of lying during a fiery exchange at the Women and Equalities Select Committee yesterday
PA
"That is a lie. You are lying.”
Osborne denied she was lying, to which Badenoch said: "You are lying. I have never used the word ‘disease’ and this is exactly what I am talking about — you are making statements at a select committee that are untrue."
Conservative committee chairwoman Caroline Nokes was forced to interrupt, saying: "Can I just remind the minister that that is unparliamentary language to use?”
But Badenoch replied: “What she said is not true. We have to use facts in this room, we can’t just make stuff up.”
Earlier this month, the Minister for Women and Equalities claimed the UK is seeing an "epidemic of young gay children being told that they are trans".
This came after Labour MP for Rhondda, Chris Bryant, gave an impassioned speech in the Commons, saying he feels "less safe today" than in the last five years.
Bryant, a gay man, said he felt less safe partly as a result of "the rhetoric used in the public debate".
This came after Badenoch said gender-affirming care for children could be seen as "a new form of conversion therapy".
The Minister for Women and Equalities minister made the comment as she confirmed plans to bring forward legislation to ban conversion practices.
But research from Columbia University of Psychiatry warns that gender-affirming care "greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents".
It warns: "Growing legislative attempts to limit, ban, or criminalize access to this critical model of medical care endangers the health and well-being of transgender and nonbinary youth".
In May 2021, against official advice — I stress that officials said, 'You should not have this meeting' —I met a young lady called Keira Bell, a lesbian, who told me of the horrific experience she had had at the Tavistock clinic.
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"It was an eye-opening experience. The hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Neale Hanvey) talked about 'transing away the gay' in his speech in Westminster Hall.
"We are seeing, I would say, almost an epidemic of young gay children being told that they are trans and being put on a medical pathway for irreversible decisions, and they are regretting it."