Penny Mordaunt has been plunged into a new controversy over trans rights after a leaked document suggested she supported measures to enable gender self-identification.
During Friday’s TV debate Tory leadership candidate said she’d “never been before” letting people make their own choice sex with minimal medical involvement. But The Mail on Sunday has a classified document that suggests it did want to relax the rules.
The paperwork was prepared by officials in July 2019, when Ms Mordaunt was Minister for Equalities. In it, officials tell her: “It has been very helpful in recent weeks to clarify several elements about how you intend to reform the gender recognition law,” including “ministerial agreement on removing the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.”
Currently, people who want to change their gender must prove that they have that medical condition – meaning they suffer from a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity – and must declare what medical treatment they have received. A gender recognition panel then decides whether the applicant can officially change gender.
Penny Mordaunt is plunged into new trans rights controversy after leaked document suggested she backed measures to enable gender self-identification
However, some trans activists advocate a ‘self-identification’ system that does not require a medical diagnosis.
The document states that Ms Mordaunt had suggested that while “some form of medical necessity” should remain part of the process, this could be limited to an assessment of whether the individual is “sound of mind.”
And it adds: “I think the “common sense” test needs more work – in terms of who would deliver it, how it would be administered… more broadly, I think there’s a lot more debate should be conducted in public and politically about how far we want to go toward self-identification for transition.’
A leading source claimed last night that the memo contradicted the Commerce Secretary’s insistence during the Channel 4 debate that “I have never been in favor of self-ID”.
But Ms. Mordaunt denied that interpretation, with a source close to her campaign saying the document was consistent with her belief that she believed in some form of medical component to gender reassignment. In the televised debate Ms Mordaunt said she ‘wouldn’t have been separated from her’ [gender redefinition] out of care.’
But rival candidate Kemi Badenoch said while ‘I’m not going to call’ [Mordaunt] a liar, I think it’s very possible she really didn’t understand what she was drawing, because it’s a very complex area.’
The Commerce Secretary has long been a vocal supporter of the trans community, which has continued to haunt her throughout the campaign. Last night, she was faced with even more questions about the matter after The Mail on Sunday discovered that Sue Pascoe, a key pillar of her leadership campaign, is a strident trans activist who once seemed to liken a feminist author to the Nazis.
The leaked document came to the fore as the race between Ms Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to become one of the final two candidates tightened – down to “a handful of MPs,” according to Mrs Truss’ allies. Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak is the clear leader of the parliamentary party, but polls indicate he would lose to either woman in the latest two-way race in the 160,000-member letter vote.
The memo, dated July 15, 2019, said officials had “redirected resources” to comply with Ms Mordaunt’s request “to announce a potential package on Thursday, July 18.”
Government sources said last night that Ms. Mordaunt appeared to want to announce reforms in the process before Boris Johnson succeeded Theresa May on July 24, 2019.
Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat at last week’s Tory leadership debate
Ms Mordaunt was fired from both her equal opportunities job and her position as Secretary of Defense when Mr Johnson became Prime Minister
The new row came as:
- Ms. Truss was boosted by the support of Attorney General Suella Braverman, who was eliminated from the race on Thursday, and three-quarters of her 27 backers now expect to switch to Ms. Truss;
- Ms Braverman uses a column in today’s Mail on Sunday to call on the 49 MPs who voted for Ms Badenoch in fourth place to stand behind Ms Truss;
- Boris Johnson’s allies reacted furiously with Mr Sunak apparently questioning the prime minister’s “integrity”, with one ally warning there would be “consequences” if he proceeded with the strategy;
- Sunak was accused of secretly trying to block the government’s program to fly migrants to Rwanda.
Seven months after Ms. Mordaunt was removed from office, the decision was made to “no longer… continue to self-identify,” according to further leaked documents.
The move came because Ms. Truss – who by then was holding the equality letter with Ms. Badenoch – “did not support a move towards self-identification.”
The 2019 document warns Ms. Mordaunt that trying to announce changes without a broader government agreement “exposes us constitutionally and politically”, adding: “The alternative is that you set out what you would like to achieve in a more personal capacity, recognizing that for this you seek support from the future Prime Minister.’
Last night, a source close to Ms. Mordaunt rejected claims that the document indicated she was in favor of self-ID, pointing out that it included the line “you…indicated that you want some form of medical requirement to remain part of the process – specifically a kind of assessment that the applicant is “sound-of-mind”.’
The source said: ‘The document you sent us showed, regardless of what the officials may have suggested, that ministers were pushing for some medical requirement to stay. This is clearly stated on page two of the document and was the view of everyone in the Department at the time and confirms that the ministers were not in favor of self-identification.’