Lib Dem conference plunged into gender row storm

The Liberal Democrat party conference: surely a bastion of good old-fashioned free speech? Sadly not, it seems, given the storm which a single stall has provoked among activists down in Brighton.The party’s leadership has now been accused of ‘authoritarianism and intolerance’ over a backlash to a campaign group prompting single-sex spaces. Liberal Voice for Women, has this week been given a stall in Brighton following legal advice after a ban at last year’s conference.

Yet the group has faced opposition from opponents of single-sex spaces, with transgender flags and posters being depicted all around them at neighbouring stands. And now the party’s president Mark Pack has weighed in to suggest that he ‘regretted’ the group’s presence. Asked by conference delegates yesterday as to why Liberal Voice for Women had not been banned he replied that:

We are required by law to be consistent in how we handle views that are protected under Equality Law.