Tory MP Laura Trott claims Esther Ghey does not want to make her daughter’s murder “about trans issues”. (Sky News)
Tory MP Laura Trott appears to have misrepresented comments made by Brianna Ghey’s mum in a bid to defend Rishi Sunak after his clash with Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions this week.
The prime minister made a jibe about trans women during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (8 February) whilst Esther Ghey watched on from the gallery. In arguing that Keir Starmer had broken “every single promise he was elected on,” he joked that he had changed his position on “defining a woman.”
“I think I have counted almost 30 in the last year. Pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman, although in fairness that was only 99 percent of a u-turn,” Sunak said.
The remark alluded to Starmer’s comment last year that womanhood is “completely biological” for “99 per cent of women”.
Starmer blasted Sunak in his reply, remarking: “Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber. Shame.” He added that Sunak was “parading as a man of integrity when he’s got absolutely no responsibility.”
Appearing on Sky News in the aftermath of the exchange, Laura Trott, the Conservative MP for Sevenoaks, attempted to defend Rishi Sunak by misrepresented Esther Ghey’s words about Brianna’s case, arguing that the teenager’s mother said she did not want to make her daughter’s murder “about trans issues”.
“Did you see the interview with Esther, Brianna’s mum this weekend?”, Trott told Sky News host Sophy Ridge. “She said that she did not want to make it about trans issues.
“This is not what this was about and I think that we should respect that.”
Trott added that Sunak “would never mean to cause anyone upset or harm” and that he was “just talking about Labour and Labour U-turning on a number of issues.”
Contrary to Trott’s claims, during Esther Ghey’s interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Ms Ghey confirmed that she believed that transphobia had been a “contributing factor” in Brianna’s murder.
Discussing 16-year-old killer Eddie Ratcliffe, who was sentenced alongside fellow killer Scarlett Jenkinson, also 16, Esther Ghey said: “I believe that with Eddie, there was hate there, there was hate for trans people. But I also think that he is a hateful boy, and I think that he would hate many people, regardless.
“So whether it was – I think it was a contributing factor, but I think he’s just a hateful person.”
As Mrs Justice Yip sentenced Ratcliffe and Jenkinson last week, she told Ratcliffe that his role in the murder was partly motivated by Brianna’s transgender identity.
“I… find that you both took part in a brutal and planned murder, which was sadistic in nature and where a secondary motive was hostility towards Brianna because of her transgender identity,” she said.
Following Sunak’s comments, Brianna’s father, Peter Spooner, demanded an apology from the prime minister, labelling his works “degrading” and “absolutely dehumanising.”
“As the prime minister for our country to come out with degrading comments like he did, regardless of them being in relation to discussions in parliament, they are absolutely dehumanising,” Spooner told Sky News.
“Identities of people should not be used in that manner, and I personally feel shocked by his comments and feel he should apologise for his remarks.”