Militant transgender rights activist who supported Penny Mordaunt ‘compared feminist writer to the Nazis’

An important supporter of Penny Mordaunt‘s attempt to become prime minister is a militant’ transgender human rights activist who once seemed to liken a feminist author to the Nazis.

Ms Mordaunt, who is accused of backtracking on her views on trans rights, posed for a photo with activist Sue Pascoe at a £50,000 garden party in Westminster last week.

A Mail on Sunday investigation reveals that Ms Pascoe has launched fierce online attacks against those who have expressed concerns about the impact of transgender activism on women.

Last month, she accused Helen Joyce, author and director of campaign group Sex Matters, of advocating a “final solution” for transgender people — a clear reference to the Holocaust.

In an online discussion with another feminist campaigner, Ms Joyce, 53, said it is important to reduce the number of people switching genders as women’s groups lobby ministers on the increasingly complex issue.

“In the meantime, as we try to get through to the decision-makers, we must try to limit the damage,” she said. “And that means reducing or limiting the number of people switching.”

In response, Ms Pascoe tweeted to Boris Johnson and Oliver Dowden, the then chairman of the Tory Party, that the Conservatives “would have nothing more to do with her or her ‘final solution'”.

Joyce last night labeled Ms Pascoe’s comments as “absolutely disgraceful” and said she should be disciplined by the Tory party.

‘How that person is in a political party is beyond me and how a serious candidate is’ [Ms Mordaunt] being willing to be around someone who speaks like that is absolutely beyond me,” she said.

‘Imagine being Jewish and seeing the ‘final solution’ and Nazism or the Holocaust as a cheap joke. It is a shame.’

Ms Pascoe denied comparing the author’s opinion to Nazism or Hitler’s Final Solution.

“I didn’t say anything about Nazis,” she said. ‘It is her [Joyce’s] final solution… You just read what she wanted to do to prevent people from switching. I meant “her final solution”. She described stopping the transition of transgender people.’

Ms. Pascoe is one of the most prominent trans activists in the Tory party. Born Graham Pascoe, she lived as a man for 50 years before undergoing gender reassignment surgery in India.

Mr Pascoe, a successful businessman, lived with his wife and two children on a 40-acre farm in North Yorkshire and was a former master of a local hunt. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in August 2014 and underwent gender correction the following year.

Ms Pascoe, a former Tory candidate for the European Parliament, is a staunch supporter of Ms Mordaunt, whom she has met at least three times to discuss trans rights issues.

Witnesses said the pair chatted for about five minutes at a party Wednesday in College Garden, on the grounds of Westminster Abbey, which was hosted by a charity run by Chris Lewis, Ms Mordaunt’s multi-millionaire PR guru.

Ms. Pascoe has also previously joined the blizzard of online attacks by trans activists against bestselling author JK Rowling. In response to an essay the author wrote two years ago in defense of women’s rights, Ms. Pascoe urged Ms. Rowling to “stop your behavior”, adding: “You are causing great harm, fear and stress in one of the most vulnerable groups of children in the country.’

A year earlier, Ms Pascoe likened curbing trans women in women’s changing rooms and toilets to ‘apartheid South Africa’.

Meanwhile, it emerged last night that Britain’s first MP – Tory Jamie Wallis – is about to announce his public support for Ms Mordaunt.

“Penny is a good friend and has been very supportive throughout my journey,” he told MoS.