A federal minister has defended Rishi Sunak’s trans jibe after the father of murdered student Brianna Ghey called on the prime minister to apologize.
Chris Philp, the police minister, insisted on BBC Breakfast that Sunak had “made no reference at all to any specific trans people” and was instead “making a point about Labour’s pretty many flip-flops.”
Sunak is under pressure to apologize for making a joke at the expense of trans people at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, just after he was told by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, that Brianna’s family, Esther Ghey, was in the public gallery.
Brianna, who was transgender, was lured to a park in Cheshire and murdered by two teenagers in February next year. Starmer welcomed Esther Ghey to the Commons on Wednesday and praised her “unwavering courage” before asking Sunak a question about NHS waiting lists.
In reply, the prime minister listed what he called broken Labour promises, telling the Commons: “I think I counted about 30 in the last year: pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, next referendums, defining a woman – although in fairness that was only 99% of a U-turn.”
The jibe drew shouts of “shame” from opposition MPs, who called for Sunak to apologize. A clearly upset Starmer responded: “Of all the days to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in the room.”
Brianna’s parents, Peter Spooner, said Sunak’s note was “absolutely dehumanizing” and called for him to apologize. “For the prime minister of our country to come out with degrading comments like he did, regardless of them being in relation to conversations in parliament, they are completely dehumanizing,” he told Sky News.
Facing questions about the discussion on Thursday night, Philp declined six times on BBC Breakfast to state whether he thought Sunak’s jibe was appropriate or polite.
Asked whether he was suggesting that Brianna’s father had misunderstood the prime minister’s note, Philp said he was “very sorry” to hear Spooner’s response and added: “I have got every respect for, naturally, the views and feelings of a grieving father.”
He insisted that the prime minister was making a political point about Labour and that Starmer was “actually wrong” to bring up Brianna after Sunak’s note.
“It is of course essential to conduct public discussion respectfully,” Philp told the BBC Radio 4 Today program. “That is why I think it was really bad of Keir Starmer to raise Brianna as a subject in the next question because Rishi Sunak had never made any reference to any individuals.”
Sunak has offered to meet Esther Ghey but no appointment has been formally confirmed.
Although some Conservative MPs have criticized Sunak’s note, the rights minister, Kemi Badenoch, accused Starmer of trying to use Brianna’s death for “political point-scoring.”
Philp told Times Radio: “The point the prime minister was making was about flip-flops and U-turns, and he listed about 10 different flip-flops and U-turns that Keir Starmer’s made – he’s making another one, I understand, later on today, on this £28bn that seems to be vanishing or is being U-turned, or they’re saying they can do the policy without it costing anything, or some equivalent nonsense.”
“But, the PM was trying to highlight Keir Starmer’s flip-flops and U-turns, and that I think was an appropriate thing to do.”
“As a more general point, when talking about difficult and delicate issues, it is obviously important for everyone in public life, all of us – journalists, politicians, everyone – to use measured and courteous language.”
