Sunak and Braverman’s trans jokes ‘unacceptable and dangerous’ says Parliament equalities chief Caroline Nokes

[IwantToRetire]

Caroline Nokes, Tory chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, warns against ‘seeking to make a group of people the butt of jokes’

Parliament’s women and equalities chair Caroline Nokes has given a dressing down to Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman over jokes about trans people.

Earlier this month, Suella Braverman joked in the Commons chamber that “we can’t rule out” Keir Starmer “running to be Labour’s first female prime minister” – while a leaked recording surfaced of Rishi Sunak last month telling Tory MPs in the 1922 Committee that the Liberal Democrats were “busy trying to convince everybody that women clearly have penises”.

Ms Nokes, a Tory MP who chairs the Women and Equalities Committee, told news podcast What the Trans?: “I think it’s hugely othering, it’s very dangerous, and it’s seeking to make a group of people the butt of jokes. I just think it’s unacceptable.”
Addressing Ms Braverman’s remark, Ms Nokes said: “To be quite frank, it was a ridiculous comment. I thought it was very telling that there was silence in the House, there was tumbleweed rolling down the aisles… let’s not use the House of Commons chamber to poke fun at marginalised groups or some sort of school debating society, we should be setting ourselves higher standards.”

Of Mr Sunak’s remarks, she said: “I just think we need to be better than that, we really do.”

The MP – who attended Cabinet under Theresa May but has remained on the backbenches under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – acknowledged that her argument “may be failing within my own party at the moment” but stressed some Tory MPs are supportive of transgender people.

She also expressed “grave concerns” about the state of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the nation’s equality watchdog, after a Channel 4 News investigation unearthed claims of a toxic environment and a rapid staff turnover.
“I get reports from EHRC staff anonymously that it is not a happy ship,” Ms Nokes revealed.

She expressed concerns that there was a “very particular direction of travel when it comes to gender critical views” at the regulator since the organisation’s chair Baroness Falkner was appointed in 2020 by then-equalities minister Liz Truss.
Ms Nokes said: “I look at the appointment now through the prism of, this was an appointment done by Liz Truss, who had a very particular agenda when it came to equalities.”

Part of quite a long interview in iNews https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-suella-braverman-trans-jokes-parliament-equalities-chief-2467613

I would have thought as a Chair she shouldn't voice an opinion. It is her role to hear all sides of an issue, and try and find a common ground or agreed way forward. Seems nobody has standards anymore. Flag waving seems to take precedence.

If iNews is behind a paywall for you go to https://archive.ph and copy in the iNews web link as it has been archived there.

Exactly this. The mockery is at the expense of the political opponent, and is in each case well-deserved.
nokes is just attention seeking.

Given that Sunak is likely to fall on his sword after the next election, I imagine Nokes is limbering up for another leadership contest in 18 months time, and what better way to prove your mettle than with a public rebuke of your leader and unpopular Home Secretary.

FFS they're not making jokes at the expense of trans people. They're mocking the on-record position of their political opponents.

If politicians spout patently absurd bollocks ("1% of women have penises") they can expect to have the piss taken.

Given that Sunak is likely to fall on his sword after the next election

Seriously?! Argh.

How on earth do they expect the electorate to vote when they can't put up a leader who is actually up for and there to run the full term? So sick of this. They're useless, all the left identifying parties are dangerously insane, wtf are you supposed to vote for.

I read it as Sunak losing first

I imagine Nokes is limbering up for another leadership contest in 18 months time

Ugh. No fucking way.

I have been a member of the Conservative Party, occasionally with gritted teeth, for many years, and if Nokes becomes leader I’ll eat my membership card.
she might get some limited influence on the coat tails of a mordaunt victory, I suppose. But if that happens I’m burning my membership card.

I think they mean if the Tories lose the election.

Though I think they'd be fools to let him, unless something changes.

I can’t see her getting anywhere

Look what happened to Mordaunt

Plus things are changing, even if Labour win the global situation will mean towards a hard line gov

Look at EU for what’s going on, just not here atm

Aaron95 · Today 08:04
No matter what your view on trans issues, making cheap jokes at the expense of a minority group is not how I expect political leaders to behave.

It was not at the expense of a minority group. It was at the expense of politicians who are using that minority group to get votes from harmful trans activists.

Yes, I meant that if the Tories lose the election, then Sunak will be expected to resign, as is the tradition.

Been thinking for a while now about this word "support".

Seems like it's come to mean "accept uncritically every claim and demand made by a person claiming to be trans / immediately provide what they want".

Of course she is And she won't be the only one I'm sure!

What she’s saying is incomprehensible. She thinks the appointment of Baroness Faulkner by Liz Truss was an ideological one, but can’t see that appointing someone who’s views are heavily loaded towards trans rights is even more ideological.

The EHRC needs to produce balanced regulations based on competing rights where necessary. The rights of women have been ignored in the formation of trans rights by so many organisations because they’ve been lead to believe they don’t need to take them into consideration. Activists, and others with personal agendas, quietly pushed their one sided views for years. Some have admitted to it, Christine Burns’ ‘under the radar’ comment for example. One of the people involved in producing the Yogyakarta Principles has gone on record to say they didn’t even consider the competing rights of women in discussions.

Anyone who dismisses the competing rights of any protected characteristic and can not understand why legislation should be balanced should not have a position in the EHRC. Noakes will try to push that they are transphobic for now seeking true equality in the meeting - that’s her belief. Maybe one day she’ll have an epiphany.

It doesn’t mean she’ll get far though

I wrote to Ms Nike a couple of years ago, expressing my concern about the possibility of people who still possessed male genitalia but who ‘identified’ as women, being allowed to access female only healthcare facilities, toilets , changing rooms , dormitories and prisons . I suggested that some of these people might be tempted to revert to a more traditional view of sexual predilections.

She assured me that ‘ the committee had ensured that safeguards were in place to prevent this.’. Time to have another look at the day job, Ms Nokes.

Auto correct 😈 changed the surname, but I’ve allowed it to stand.

No it doesn't, although who knows, an election defeat, particularly if it's a bad one, can take a party to some very strange places. But for the next year or so, I will viewing a lot of statements from Tory MPs through this prism.

I’m more concerned what Labour will do in that case. Given it means they’d have won and are pro gender ideology

Penny Mordaunt is another on the list for next leader, I'm sure.

To my mind Caroline Nokes is one of those women who resent the fact of their sex, and see it as a burden or as purely a source of oppression. I think she is accepting of the idea that a man can become woman because she imagines that there are no essential differences betwee the sexes - it is all social, and oppressive at that.

She campaigns for legal recognition of menstruation and menopause as particular sources of suffering or oppression for women.She wants these 'oppressions' to be legally recognised and accommodated. In a way she has identified what makes a woman a woman ( ie biology) and seeks specific protections for this.

In separating the whole person from her biological functions I sense a detachment and rejection of femaleness. Femaleness is just menstruation and menopause - nothing else.

It is the kind of logic you see many trans advocates adopting. I think is the kind of place that Stella Creasy is coming from too. She is resentful of the accommodations and adaptations that women have to make on account of their sex.

"Caroline Nokes also suffered a very disturbing experience as a child. On a trip to London Zoo, dressed in school uniform, she recalls being grabbed by a group of men.

"[They] just grabbed hold of me and groped me, and the thing lasted no more than two or three seconds, and I was 11 years-old and it lives with me to this day, that men felt empowered to literally grab a school child as she passed, hands everywhere, and then gone."

Ms Nokes also recounts an incident in her early 30s, when she claims she was touched inappropriately by Stanley Johnson, the prime minister's father who was at the time a former Conservative MEP and parliamentary candidate.
She says it was in 2003, ahead of the 2005 election at Conservative Party conference in Blackpool. She says as she was checking into her hotel, she remembers Mr Johnson "smacking me on the backside about as hard as he could and going: 'Oh Romsey [where Ms Nokes was standing as a candidate], you've got a lovely seat.'"

"I didn't do anything," said Ms Nokes. "And I feel ashamed by that."

https://news.sky.com/story/everybody-knows-a-perpetrator-what-can-be-done-to-end-violence-against-women-and-girls-12469404

It is as if her way of coping with the sexual assault is to psychologically distance herself from her body. Her body is the female, but not her essential self. So, a sort of lack of wholeness and integration; a separation.

she wants to identify out of being a woman herself - no wonder she supports others who want to do the same; but bizarrely - also supportive of placing males in protected female spaces where other 11 year old girls ( like herself) may be.

Isn't it 'hugely othering' to assume, as Nokes seems to, that Keir Starmer being or becoming a woman is per se ridiculous?

Nice shot!

Sadly this woman is my MP she is very keen on the trans evil.