Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has come under fire after being secretly filmed making derogatory remarks about transgender individuals.
First reported by PinkNews – the video, which was taken during a party on June 5, 2023, shows the PM making a range of inappropriate comments about “women having penises” while mocking Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey for his support of trans rights.
Sunak’s comments and the laughter from fellow MPs indicate that he maintains an anti-trans stance when speaking privately to colleagues, away from the media’s scrutiny. In the leaked recording, Sunak can be heard saying, “It shows his spectacular misjudgment and why he’s completely unfit to lead our country.”
While the exact target of Sunak’s remarks is unclear, he is likely referring to the Labour leader Keir Starmer, who has faced criticism for seemingly supporting proposals to disclose transgender students’ identities to their parents.
“Over the same period of time, you might have noticed Ed Davey has been very busy,” Sunak continues. “Like me, you can probably see that he was trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises. You’ll all know that I’m a big fan of everybody studying maths to 18, but it turns out that we need to focus on biology.”
The individual who shared the video with PinkNews expressed concerns about the disparity between Sunak’s public statements advocating for freedom of speech and his private jokes, highlighting the inappropriate nature of mocking marginalised communities. They added that some younger attendees at the event seemed visibly uncomfortable.
Sunak’s emphasis on “biology” and his use of trans women as punchlines suggest his inclination to adopt so-called gender-critical rhetoric and attack the transgender community while addressing his own MPs in private.
An anonymous senior Tory MP expressed disappointment over this tendency to belittle and demonise “other” minorities instead of understanding and supporting them. The existence of equality legislation is intended to prevent discrimination against individuals with protected characteristics.
In April 2023, Sunak attempted to differentiate himself from rival MP Keir Starmer by agreeing with the statement that “100 percent of women do not have a penis.” He also signalled plans to amend the Equality Act to restrict trans women from accessing single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and sports competitions.
Earlier this year, Sunak utilised a Section 35 order to block Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Act, which aimed to simplify the legal recognition process for trans people by removing the requirement for a medical diagnosis.
