Doncaster MP sparks Suella Braverman LGBT comments after calling for local police to stop “promoting unscientific ideologies”

On Monday this week, Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher addressed the Home Secretary Suella Braverman during a meeting of Parliament, calling for “unscientific ideologies” to be removed from policing in the constituency.

His question led to some widely shared comments from the Home Secretary, who agreed with Mr Fletcher’s sentiments.

Mr Fletcher asked: “The fall in crime is welcome, but does my honourable friend agree with me that the police would deter and solve even more crimes, such as burglaries, use of quad bikes and general antisocial behaviour in places such as Hatfield, Doncaster, Rossington and Thorne in my constituency, if they started putting more bobbies on the beat and stopped promoting unscientific ideologies?”

Ms Braverman responded: “Well, my honourable friend is quite right. We pay the police to fight crime, whether that’s a focus on antisocial behaviour, the nuisance bikers or burglaries, as he’s mentioned, they are there to keep people safe, Mr Speaker.

“We do not pay them to wave flags at parades, to dance with drag queens or to campaign. That’s why I finally ended all association with Stonewall at the Home Office, and why I expect all PCCs and Chief Constables to focus on cutting crime and rebuilding confidence, not playing politics.”

It comes after earlier in the month, Ms. Braverman commissioned a review into “activism and impartiality” in the police force, which was sparked by police getting involved in pride parades as well as Black Lives Matter statements.

Mr Fletcher, a member of the right-wing New Conservatives faction of the governing party, has been openly critical of transgender people in particular since his election in 2019.

In March, during an interview with Times Radio, he said: “Teaching unfact-based ideologies to children at school is not what we should be doing, and pronouns is part of that problem.”

Last year, he sent a letter to every school in his constituency outlining his views on gender identity doubts as “nothing more than a phase”.