James Kirkup James Kirkup

Revealed: the secret trans-rights lobbying operation in parliament

(Photo: iStock)

This is a story about politics and influence and openness. It’s also about the drive for trans rights and some of the people involved in that push, but in a way, that’s secondary. Because the issues involved here and the questions raised are bigger even than sex, gender and the rest. This is, in the end, about how rules and laws and policies are made, and who gets a say on that.

A lot of this story is about something called an All Party Parliamentary Group. APPGs are, as the name says, groups of MPs and peers who work together to investigate, report and campaign on a particular issue. They are not parliamentary bodies in the sense of being part of the legislature; unlike select committees, they have no constitutional status or legal powers.

Some APPGs are serious, influential outfits whose words can sway government policy. Some are little more than letterheads for political hobbyists. Most fall somewhere in between those two extremes.

Because APPGs are not formally part of parliament, they don’t get public money or resources. Many have ‘secretariats’, staff provided by people and organisations interested in the same issue as the group. Often those staff are provided by charities campaigning in the same field.

For obvious reasons, there are some pretty clear rules around the transparent functioning of the system I’ve just described. If MPs are going to get resources from outside organisations – organisations with their own agendas – to research and compile reports that could influence law and policy, it’s only right that the public know about all of this. Otherwise how confident can we be in our laws and rules, if the people who make them do so under the private influence of people and organisations motivated not by the public interest but by narrow sectional interest?

The APPG at the heart of this story is the APPG on LGBT+ Global Rights.

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