Conversion Practices (Prohibition) Bill

Debate between Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger

2nd reading
Friday 1st March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Miriam Cates]

I absolutely agree. Although Members have spoken about abuse and persistent patterns of behaviour—all of which are certainly serious—the reality is that in the drafting of the Bill, a single act could be brought as a criminal offence. There are not sufficient safeguards in the Bill to prevent that from happening.

For example, let us say that I was a primary school teacher and a girl came to me and said that she felt she was actually a boy and that she had been born in the wrong body. If I said to her on one occasion, “No, actually you are a girl. It is great being a girl”—perhaps she is gender non-conforming in some way, and she thinks that means she is not really female—I probably would not be caught by this Bill. But if I said that to her repeatedly—in other words, if I told her the truth and guided her, as adults should guide children—I very much would be caught by this Bill, especially if I were a gender-critical feminist who had put things on social media that prove that I did not believe in gender identity ideology, for example. Those are exactly the kinds of behaviours that we absolutely cannot criminalise in a democratic and free society.

Parents and children are my principal concern here. In the past two years, my inbox has been full of tragic stories of children, often girls, often same-sex attracted, often autistic, who have been groomed online and often by activist groups, sometimes in schools, into believing that they are actually boys. Sadly, some of these children have gone on to be prescribed puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones. Some are actively pursuing radical surgery that will leave them infertile, unable to breastfeed, and with medical problems for the rest of their life. It is already difficult enough for parents, teachers and employees to speak out against this ideology. The hon. Member for somewhere in Scotland—

[Danny Kruger]

Kirkcaldy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger

Thursday 11th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to increase opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

[Danny Kruger (Devizes) (Con)]

What steps he is taking to reform Government procurement to boost (a) local growth and (b) the small and medium-sized enterprises sector.