Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Carlisle has called on the government to ban ‘conversion therapy’.

The call from Julie Minns follows continued delay to legislation that would ban practices that attempt to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

So-called ‘conversion therapy’ can involve pseudo-scientific ‘counselling’ sessions, ‘purification’, threats, and being prayed over as a form of ‘healing’ and exorcism.

It can also be more covert, such as the refusal to affirm the gender identity of trans people in schools, the workplace, or in healthcare.

The practices, which have been called a form of abuse, and ‘abhorrent’ by former prime minister Boris Johnson, are still used against LGBTQ+ people frequently in the UK today.

The UK Government’s LGBT survey of 2018 reported that trans people were twice as likely to be subjected to conversion practices as lesbian, gay, or bisexual people.

Julie Minns said: “Conversion therapy has only one goal - to ‘cure’ someone from being lesbian, gay, bi, trans, or queer.

“To ban them from being who they are. It is abhorrent, and the very opposite of appropriate, affirming and healthy therapy or counselling, which supports an individual who is exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity. Conversion therapy has no place anywhere, and I am particularly concerned by reports that it is happening here in Carlisle." 

Julie Minns, who previously worked for disability charity Scope, also called on the government to strengthen and equalise the law so that anti-disability and anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes are treated as aggravated offences, something the Labour Party said it has already pledged to do if elected at the next general wlection.

Speaking about the importance of Pride month, Julie Minns said: "Instead of standing up for LGBT+ rights and bringing people together, the Conservatives have stoked a culture war, pitted different groups against each other and watched as hate crime against LGBT+ people has rocketed.

“We are a tolerant country, with a proud record of progress on equality and the highest number of proudly gay MPs of any parliament in the world.

“Labour will treat these issues with respect and sensitivity rather than try and pit people against each other.”

Labour's ‘New Deal for Working People' would require employers to create and maintain workplaces free from LGBTQ+ harassment, including by third parties and appoint an international LGBTQ+ rights envoy to raise awareness and improve LGBTQ+ rights for people across the world.

In 2017, then PM Theresa May promised to end ‘conversion therapy’, and in the Queen's Speech in 2021, Boris Johnson's government announced they would bring forward legislation to ban it, but legislation has yet to be published.