Leading gay Tory politician removed from conference after heckling Suella Braverman
"It is making our Conservative party look transphobic and homophobic"
Gay London Assembly member Andrew Boff was ejected from the Conservative Party Conference after heckling Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Boff quietly interrupted Braverman after she described “gender ideology” as “poison” on a speech made on Tuesday (3 October).
He went on to label her comments as “trash” and added: “There’s no such thing as gender ideology.”
Mr Boff was then swiftly taken out of the Manchester convention centre, where the annual event has been held this week.
“The home secretary said some things which I found quite objectionable” – Andrew Boff
“It is making our Conservative party look transphobic and homophobic,” he then told reporters.
The Tory party member, who has held membership for over 50 years, accused Braverman of “vilifying” and “bullying” the LGBTQ+ community.
“The Home Secretary said some things which I found quite objectionable, I consider them bullying, I consider them bullying trans people and the LGBT community,” Boff told ITV News after he was kicked out of conference.
“She used those tropes of ‘gender ideology’ which, of course, doesn’t exist.
“I was born and brought up that when you see a bully you challenge them and that’s what I was doing and I challenged her.”
He went on: “This home secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology. It is fictitious, it is ridiculous.
“It is a signal to people who don’t like people who are LGBT+ people. Words like that in the forum of the party that I love need to be challenged.”
Braverman then followed up on X (formerly known as Twitter), declaring that Boff should be allowed back into conference.
“Andrew Boff’s heckles were silly but I think he should be forgiven and let back into conference,” she wrote on the social media site.
However, the politician made clear he did not want to accept the apology from the Home Secretary.
On Tuesday night, he wrote in response: “I don’t want to be ‘forgiven’, thank you.”
It came after the senior Tory cabinet member already made clear her support of Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s plans to ban trans women from receiving healthcare on female NHS wards.
”Trans women have no place in women’s wards or, indeed, any safe space relating to biological women,” Braverman claimed.