Lots of constituents have been in touch with me regarding yesterday’s Westminster Hall debate on making LGBT conversion therapy illegal in the UK.

All major psychotherapy and counselling bodies in the UK – including the NHS – condemn the practice of LGBT conversion therapy. In 2017 the Church of England also passed a motion condemning these practices and calling on the Government to ban them. This call has now been supported by over 370 global religious leaders and organisations. Despite this, conversion therapy is still legal and LGBT people in the UK are still exposed to this psychological and emotional abuse. 

Being LGBT should never be treated as something which should be ‘curable’, and I am deeply concerned that the practice has spread fear and hatred in society. As Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities Charlotte Nichols highlighted: “the most recent annual update on the implementation of the Government’s LGBT action plan was published in July 2019.”

We urgently need an update from the UK Government on when conversion therapy will be banned as there are LGBT people experiencing harms from these practices every day and the longer we wait to take action, the longer they are denied legal redress.

You can read all contributions from yesterday’s Westminster Hall Debate here.