Tory MP Mike Freer Appointed Equalities Minister Alongside Kemi Badenoch

Tory MP Mike Freer has been appointed Equalities Minister in a late addition to the recent cabinet reshuffle. Freer will support Liz Truss, who is the Minister of Equalities and Women, and will work with Minister for Equalities Kemi Badenoch in the role.

Freer, who is gay, will take up this new position as well as his previously announced job role of Minister for Exports. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights, which is chaired by Crispin Blunt MP, said it was “delighted to welcome Mike Freer to his newly announced role.”

“Mike has always been a champion of LGBT+ people and we look forward to working closely with him in government,” the group wrote on Twitter. Freer has previously campaigned for HIV-preventing drug PrEP to be rolled out on the NHS, and has been a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage and LGBT+ rights.

The announcement comes after Badenoch was revealed to have mocked LGBTQ+ rights and used transphobic slurs in a leaked audio recording obtained by VICE World News.

In the recording made in 2018, Badenoch was heard questioning same-sex marriage and calling trans women “men” as well as using the term “transsexual”, which is considered outdated and offensive.

The comments were made a few years ago, but this is not the first time Badenoch has attracted controversy for her views and been met with calls for her resignation.

She has previously met with the LGB Alliance, a group considered to be transphobic, and refused to attend the inquiry about the Gender Recognition Act earlier this year.

Though the Minister for Equalities is meant to address “the discrimination and inequalities that LGBT people face,” many believe Badenoch has not lived up to this brief.

WhatsApp messages published by VICE World News today revealed that Badenoch also previously dismissed the impact of colonialism and mocked Black public figures.

In the message, she wrote: “I don’t care about colonialism because [I] know what we were doing before colonialism got there.”

No action has been taken against Badenoch for these comments, with a government spokesperson telling VICE that her views towards LGBTQ+ people was “taken out of context” and “should not be used to misrepresent her views.”

Regarding her messages about colonialism, a government spokesperson said to VICE: “The government does not comment on leaked private correspondence.”