Controversies surrounding the transgender debate have cropped up in recent speeches made by members of the Conservative party at their national conference, which took place in Manchester from the 1st to the 4th of October.

In his speech to the Tory conference audience, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised concerns about those who choose a different gender to their assigned sex. He claimed that “patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women”, in relation to Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s earlier announcement that the NHS constitution will be amended to ban transgender women in female-only hospital wards, and his efforts to restore use of the word ‘women’ when regarding female-specific illnesses.

Sunak riled up the crowd by exclaiming “we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be - they can’t!”.

He wrapped up the segment by stating “a man is a man and a woman is a woman - that’s just common sense!”, before a cheering crowd.

Health Secretary Jeremy Miles disputed these comments at a talk to Cardiff University’s Labour Students’ Society on Thursday 5th of October, stating they were ‘absolutely disgusting’.

Rishi wasn’t alone in painting his party as the one of ‘common sense’, with six ministers in total making reference to gender and sex debates. Home Secretary Suella Braverman condemned ‘gender ideology’, people being “chased out of their jobs for saying that a man can’t be a woman”, and damned being “disciplined for using the wrong words”. She described such as ‘poison’ which needs to be challenged and claimed “this conservative government has begun the task of clearing out this pernicious nonsense”.

She also spoke directly to parents, stating “it shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in schools”.

Braverman’s speech received controversy due to comments made by Andrew Boff, a Conservative London Assembly member and chair, who is also gay. During her speech, Boff said “there’s no such thing as gender ideology”, repeatedly said ‘no!’, and criticised what he claimed to be a “homophobic rant”. He was then removed from the conference by Greater Manchester Police, who were chaperoning the event.

When interviewed afterwards, Boff claimed the “Home Secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology” and that “words like that in the forum of the party I love need to be challenged”. He claimed “it is making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic”.

The Home Secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology.

16-year old student Grace also condemned Braverman’s comments, claiming “people our age would be really disgusted with the things that they’re saying”.

This is not the first time that the Home Secretary has made controversial comments surrounding LGBTQ+ identity. Earlier this week, she claimed that asylum seekers try to “game the system” and pretend to be gay in order to come to the United Kingdom, and that being gay or a woman shouldn’t be the basis for becoming a refugee.

Other Tory MPs complained about the comments, including a gay Tory MP Elliot Colburn, who stated at a conference fringe event that his party must “drop this hardcore rhetoric”. 1.5% of asylum claims last year had sexual orientation included in the basis of the claim with 64 countries having laws against homosexuality.

Taking a hard stance on gender and identity issues is likely to form part of the Conservatives’ election strategy. Deputy chair of the party, Lee Anderson, claimed new topics like the ‘trans debate’ are needed to rile up the electorate, especially in the post-Brexit era. This allows the Conervatives to take what they call the ‘common sense’ approah in contrast to Labour, whose leader Keir Starmer has previously noted that individuals with male genitalia can be women.