Tory MPs asked to ‘talk out’ Liz Truss’s transgender law reforms

Conservative MPs have been asked to prolong debates in the Commons to avoid discussing Liz Truss’s proposed transgender law reforms, PA understands.

The Commons was due to discuss Ms Truss’s reforms on Friday, but MPs appeared to be trying to “talk out” her proposed legislation, in effect using up time to stop it being debated.

Ms Truss’s Bill, which would ban transgender women from female-only spaces and prevent them from competing in women’s sports, is third on the list of backbench Bills to be debated on Friday.

But MPs spent around four hours debating another proposed law on animal welfare, leaving just an hour to discuss a law on procurement before reaching Ms Truss’s Bill.

If her Bill is not voted on by 2.30pm, it will be rescheduled to another day and fall to the bottom of the priority list, meaning it is almost certain not to become law.

Lengthy speeches in earlier debates led Conservative MP Sally Ann Hart to accuse Labour of trying to “talk out” the Bill, saying the party has “no interest in safeguarding children against extreme trans ideology”.

But the PA news agency understands that Conservative MPs have also been asked to prolong debates on the animal welfare and procurement proposals in order to avoid debating Ms Truss’s Bill.

Labour’s shadow environment secretary, Steve Reed, denied that he was trying to talk out the Bill by delivering a 35-minute speech on animal welfare, saying the subject was “important”, to cries of “rubbish” from the Conservative benches.

Deputy speakers Dame Eleanor Laing and Sir Roger Gale repeatedly asked MPs to restrict their remarks to the subject of the Bill, saying they were straying into other areas.

On Thursday evening, it had been suggested that the Government could back Ms Truss’s Bill, with equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said to be sympathetic to its aims.

A Government aide said: “Kemi is very supportive of the aims of Liz’s Bill but it is unworkable in its current form.

“Nonetheless it can support Kemi’s work on the definition of sex, and colleagues’ work banning puberty blockers, and Liz is keen to help.”

Ms Truss has previously said her Bill would provide a clear dividing line with Labour on what has become one of the main “culture war” issues.

The aide agreed, adding: “The Labour Party is hopelessly split on these issues, so the Conservatives should be open to all ideas to improve protections for women and girls.”

But the Department of Health and Social Care was understood to be the final block to accepting the former prime minister’s legislation.

On Friday, Downing Street would not be drawn on whether the Government would back Ms Truss’s Bill, saying only that it would “be considered in the usual way by the House”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “But more broadly, we welcome the sentiment set out in the Bill, not least because it is consistent with our own approach on the fundamental importance of biological sex and the right that women have to access dedicated single-sex spaces.”