David Lammy slams BBC for asking about trans row ahead of Starmer speech

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy has criticised BBC Today programme presenter Nick Robinson for asking him about trans issues ahead of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s keynote speech at the party’s annual conference this afternoon.

On Monday Lammy told a conference fringe event when discussing trans rights that “there are some dinosaurs on the right” and also that “those dinosaurs exist in our own party” who want to “hoard rights”.

Last week The Sunday Times reported that Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield pulled out of the party’s annual conference in Brighton, citing threats of violence from trans rights activists due to her views on single-sex spaces.

Interviewing Lammy this morning, Robinson asked Lammy who he meant to when he referred to “dinosaurs” in the fringe meeting.

Lammy accused Robinson of setting “a bit of a trap” saying he should ask him about issues such as climate change, mental health and education, adding: “You are deliberately asking me about an issue that you know does not come up on the doorstep …”

Robinson highlighted that Deborah Mattinson, the former pollster now head of strategy for the Labour leader, has said that one of the party’s key issues is that “red wall” voters often fail to relate to the same issues as the party’s young, liberal activists for whom trans rights are often important.

Joanna Cherry QX, SNP MP for Edinburgh South West hit back at Lammy via Twitter: