Will Jamie Wallis change the tone of the Tory trans debate?

The Conservative MP for Bridgend, Jamie Wallis, has become the first MP to make public that he is transgender – or, in his words, “to be more accurate, I want to be”.

In a statement published yesterday, Wallis explained that he has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria – an unease a person may have between their biological sex and their gender identity. He said he has “felt this way since I was a very young child.

“I had no intention of ever sharing this with you. I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud,” he continued.

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Wallis, who was elected in 2019, revealed that he had been raped last year, and blackmailed the year before when someone demanded £50,000 to “keep quiet” about his gender identity. He also spoke of how he crashed his car in November and “fled the scene”. “I did so because I was terrified. I have PTSD,” said Wallis.

Both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer acknowledged Wallis’s statement in the House of Commons. The prime minister told him “the House stands with you and will give you the support you need to live freely as yourself”. On Twitter, Johnson also thanked Wallis for his “bravery, which will undoubtedly support others”.

Conservative colleagues were quick to praise Wallis and offer their best wishes. Equalities minister Mike Freer said: “I hope I speak for the whole House in sending our support”, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Wallis via Twitter: “We stand with you.”

Yet “many labelled Johnson a hypocrite”, said Pink News, given it was reported that “just hours before”, the PM had “cracked a joke at the expense of the trans community at a dinner attended by Tories including Wallis”.

The PM apparently opened the dinner, saying: “Good evening ladies and gentleman – or as Keir Starmer would put it, people who are assigned female or male at birth,” the BBC said.

Truss also “spoke out against self-identification for trans people” last year, Pink News added, “saying there needed to be ‘checks and balances in the system’”.

Arthur Webber at OpenDemocracy agreed that the Tory Party’s messages of support might ring “hollow”, after many have “been keen to fan the flames of the anti-trans culture war”.

But “contrary to the anti-Boris point-scoring being peddled by much of the media”, Wallis has spoken of Johnson’s “very generous private support of him”, reported Guido Fawkes. The MP told the political news site that the prime minister had called him to ask “how he wanted to be treated, questions about a new name or pronouns, and whether there’s anything the party could do to help”.

Andrew Boff, patron of the LGBT+ Conservatives group, said he hoped that Wallis’s announcement would usher in a more “respectful” conversation.

“The party is really divided over the issue,” he said. Boff added that “a lot of trans people had hope” when Theresa May pledged to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates without requiring a diagnosis, said The Independent. But Boff said “that’s all been brushed away” under Johnson’s leadership.

In a statement, the Tory Reform Group added: “Trans lives are difficult and complex, they should not be ridiculed in flippant after-dinner jokes.

“The Government needs to treat LGBT people with kindness rather than as punch lines.”