Mick Hartley

This is not good. From the Times:

A group of Boris Johnson’s most senior advisers are allowing government policy on trans rights to be dictated by Stonewall, a former aide to the prime minister has warned.

Nikki da Costa, who stood down as Johnson’s director of legislative affairs in August, claimed the prime minister was being presented with “skewed” advice by a powerful lobby in No 10 that was undermining women’s rights.

She alleged this extended to deciding what Johnson saw in his red boxes and refusing to arrange meetings with people who would present opposing views. She added it was having a “chilling” effect on some staff who risked being seen as “difficult” by the most senior political officials.

“There is no other organisation — no business, or charity, no matter how big — that can pick up the phone to a special adviser sitting outside Boris Johnson’s office and get that person to speak directly to the prime minister. But that is the kind of access that Stonewall has.

“I’ve never seen that in any other circumstances in Downing Street.”

Stonewall, though, has special magic powers. How else to account for the extraordinary success of its Diversity Champions scheme?

While Da Costa refused to name the aides, Johnson’s most senior advisers include figures such as Henry Newman who have supported the role of Stonewall’s diversity training programme in government.

Carrie Johnson, the prime minister’s wife, also spoke at a pro-Stonewall Conservative LGBT event at this year’s Tory conference in Manchester.

Da Costa said a pro-Stonewall lobby at the top of Downing Street had influenced the government’s current conversion therapy consultation, stymying attempts by ministers to challenge the sway of Stonewall across Whitehall.

However, it is said to have divided staff in Downing Street with some suggesting that policies enabling gender self-identification are eroding the rights of women.

And they're quite right. Gender self-identification does clearly erode the rights of women. This much we know for sure.

Da Costa cited the government consultation on banning conversion therapy that could potentially make it a criminal offence for therapists to try to help patients with gender dysphoria to feel comfortable in their birth sex.

The consultation period was halved from the normal 12-week period to six weeks, which Da Costa said was “driven” by a desire “to get a good news story” in time for next year’s government-backed LGBTQ equality conference.

“The fear is that if we don’t get this right then therapists, doing perfectly legitimate work, particularly supporting vulnerable children, could find themselves in court accused of coercing someone into not undergoing gender alignment surgery. There’s no reason why the government can’t take a few more weeks, even a couple months to get this right.”

It's going to be illegal for therapists to question a child's desire to transition? Oh boy.