Bridget Phillipson: Kemi Badenoch has ‘no interest in supporting LGBT+ people’

Exclusive: Equalities minister says Tories are ‘chasing Reform into the gutter’ as they drop support for planned law to ban ‘conversion therapy’

Kemi Badenoch has “no interest in supporting LGBT+ people” or promoting tolerance more widely, a government minister has said, after the Conservatives dropped support for a planned law to ban so-called “conversion therapy”.

The comments by Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister, come after the Tories removed their previous backing for a law targeting abusive practices that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Badenoch’s party say this is because of concerns about the scope of the bill, particularly the way it deals with gender identity.