POLITICS

QUESTION TIME

In the year since it came to power, the Labour government has broken long-held promises to LGBTQ+ people. With the government shifting to a less supportive position towards the queer community, we examine the policies of all of the political parties as we ask: who will be our voice in Westminster?

Words Vic Parsons

PEXELS: AIRAMDPHOTO GETTY: IMAGE SOURCE

BATTLING ON: Charley Hasted (second left), co-chair of the LGBT+ Lib Dems, in action

At Downing Street’s Pride reception in July, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said attendees were there to “celebrate that truly transformational work” carried out by LGBTQ+ organisations.

“I want you to know that this is a government committed to the fundamental principles of respect, dignity and equality,” Starmer continued, adding that he is “absolutely determined” to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people “right across Britain”.

The next day, Starmer’s government published updated Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSE) guidance for schools that was quickly likened to “Section 28 2.0”. According to Labour’s guidance, from September 2026 schools must teach students that there is “significant debate” about trans identities and avoid materials that could “encourage pupils to question their gender”.

Calling the move “a dangerous regression in inclusive education”, Pride in Education responded with an open letter signed by more than 3,500 people. It said that the new guidance “places trans, nonbinary, intersex, asexual and gender non-conforming pupils at risk by erasing their identities from the curriculum and silencing their experiences within schools”.

The updated RSE guidance came one year after Labour’s landslide at the last general election and is the latest in a line of blows to LGBTQ+ people from the government.

Since gaining power, Labour has failed to publish a new HIV Action Plan, despite promising to do so before summer 2025; failed to ban the harmful pseudoscientific practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy’, despite promising to do so in the King’s Speech in July 2024; and been accused by its own MPs of failing to protect LGBTQ+ citizens from violence in British overseas territories.