‘Baby of the House’ Labour MP Nadia Whittome, 24, has launched an attack on free speech by saying the ‘very act of debate is a rollback of equality’ in an article about trans rights.
The MP for Nottingham East wrote a column for The Independent which was published yesterday, titled: ‘The only way to avoid hysteria about trans rights is to ground the debate in real life experiences’.
Ms Whittome shared the article on Twitter, posting in a series of tweets that the ‘very act of debate in these cases is an effective rollback of assumed equality’.
But the argument sparked backlash from Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan, alongside MEPs Daniel Hannan and Martin Daubney.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome (above), 24, wrote a column for The Independent titled: ‘The only way to avoid hysteria about trans rights is to ground the debate in real life experiences’
Transgender people and supporters gather in Parliament Square, London, earlier this month to protest against potential changes to the Gender Recognition Act
Ms Whittome said: ‘Much of the media coverage, pundit commentary and social media discussions centred on trans rights are fixated on manufacturing short-term outrage, rarely allowing us intelligent, humane understanding of the real, lived experiences of trans people in our society.
‘But any public discourse on protecting and advancing the rights of trans people must be firmly grounded in these real-life experiences in order to resist hysteria, abstraction and misinformation.
‘We cannot allow transgender rights to be reduced to statistics, an academic subject or a series of hypothetical scenarios. Everything said on the subject of trans identities has a direct impact on real people and their families.’
Writing in the column, she added: ‘We must not fetishise “debate” as though debate is itself an innocuous, neutral act.
‘If someone wanted to initiate a debate about whether women are innately less intelligent than men or whether disabled people should be paid the same level of wages as non-disabled people, we would rightly be appalled at such a suggestion.’
In response to her tweets, Piers wrote: ‘Good grief. How can a democratically elected MP have such a dreadful view of debating? Even by woke standards this is absurd.’
Ms Whitmore, the MP for Nottingham East, pictured in the House of Commons. She became the UK’s youngest MP after gaining her seat in December last year
The Labour MP replied: ‘In the past there were ‘debates’ on allowing openly gay and bisexual people in the military. I clearly mention debate in this context: creating a debate about people’s fundamental rights or equal status is a hostile act.
‘Don’t spin it to stoke a right wing feeding frenzy.’
Former MEP Mr Daubney also commented: ‘If you can’t debate ideas opposed to your own then frankly you do not deserve to be an elected representative. Win the battle of ideas, don’t dodge it.’
Mr Hannan added: ‘The woke Left is becoming uncomfortable with reason, empiricism, free enquiry, the scientific method – the whole Enlightenment package.
‘Those scare quotes around “debate” tell you everything you need to know.’
The comments sparked backlash, above, from Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan, alongside former MEPs Daniel Hannan and Martin Daubney
Ms Whittome, who became the UK’s youngest MP after gaining her seat in December last year, has previously sparked backlash from Twitter users after comparing Parliament to Hogwarts.
She told ITV’s Peston in January: ‘It feels like joining Hogwarts but when the death eaters have taken over. I’ve got my acceptance letter but I’ve rocked up and Severus Snape is the headteacher, the death eaters are all teaching.’
One social media user described the comments as ‘just dreadful’ while another posted: ‘Cringe.’
The debate follows author JK Rowling joining Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Noam Chomsky and Martin Amis to sign an open letter defending free speech earlier this month.
The group of artists, writers and academics decried the weakening of public debate and warned the free exchange of information and ideas was in jeopardy amid a rise in what they call ‘illiberalism.’