Suella Braverman makes 'disgusting' LGBT+ comments days after Tory defeat

In news which probably won’t surprise many people, former home secretary Suella Braverman has once again made headlines with more divisive comments – this time heading stateside to the National Conservatism conference to speak about the “monstrous” and “horrible political campaign” represented by the Progress Pride flag.

Addressing an audience in Washington DC just days after her Conservative Party suffered its worst electoral result in its history, the re-elected Fareham and Waterlooville MP claimed the ‘Progress’ version of the LGBT+ flag was flown over government buildings “as if they were occupied territory”.

Designed by Daniel Quasar in 2021, the updated flag adds black, brown, white, pink and light blue chevrons to the seven-striped flag to represent LGBT+ people of colour, trans people and those living with Aids.

Except Braverman doesn’t like that, and fumed over what she called “trans fanatics” and the stance taken by her Conservative peers.

She said: “Far, far too many Tory politicians agreed – and still agree - that the Progress flag must be flown, to be kind, to be inclusive. It shows how liberal and progressive we are, and that’s what many Conservatives want us to be.

“Well, the Progress flag says to me, it says to me one monstrous thing: that I was a member of a government that presided over the mutilation of children in our hospitals and from our schools.”

“Mutilation” is a common term used by the right and far-right to describe gender-affirming surgery for transgender and non-binary people – namely the removal of breast tissue or a bilateral mastectomy commonly referred to as ‘top surgery’.

Per the NHS, those aged 17 or over can be seen or referred to an adult gender identity clinic, where “more permanent treatments” that align with a person’s gender identity can be pursued.

Basically, it’s surgery which can help trans and non-binary folk feel more like themselves – in other words, A Good Thing.

Alongside taking aim at trans people, Braverman also criticised “unconscious bias training which basically taught people how bad and racist Britain was” and said she was told by a senior civil servant that she was “on the wrong side of history” for thinking as such.

After Braverman’s remarks were reported by ITV News’ Paul Brand, social media users have slammed the Tory politician’s rhetoric:

Braverman, whose name has been floated in some circles as a potential successor to Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader (although she told reporters on Saturday that she had “no announcements” to make on that front), hasn’t shied away from taking aim at her own political party in recent weeks.

Even before the Tories’ electoral disaster happened on Thursday, she was appearing in The Telegraph two days prior to declare the election was “over” for her party and that it had to “prepare for the reality and frustration of opposition”.

Then, when she hung on to her Fareham seat with 17,561 votes to Labour’s 11,482 votes – a result which saw her majority plummet from 26,806 votes in 2019 to just over 6,000 votes this time around – her victory speech saw her say “sorry” that her party “didn’t listen” to people.

“The Conservative Party has let you down. You, the Great British people, voted for us over 14 years and we did not keep our promises.

“We’ve acted as if we’re entitled to your vote, regardless of what we did, regardless of what we didn’t do, despite promising time after time that we would do those things.

“We need to learn our lesson, because if we don’t - bad as tonight has been for my party - we’ll have many worse nights to come,” she said.

And it was comments made in an op-ed back in November – a piece for The Times in which she branded pro-Palestine protesters “hate marchers” and suggested police officers “play favourites” when handling demonstrations – which played a part in her being sacked as home secretary days later.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.