MAIDENHEAD’S MP Theresa May has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ban trans conversion therapy as she voices regret over past gay rights votes.

Writing in the I for the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride, Mrs May said: “Few people, reading of accounts from trans people, would disagree that they still face indignities and prejudice, when they deserve understanding and respect.

“We need to strive for greater understanding on both sides of the debate. Just because an issue is controversial, that doesn’t mean we can avoid addressing it.

“To that end, the Government must keep to its commitment to consider the issue of transgender conversion therapy.

“If it is not to be in the upcoming Bill, then the matter must not be allowed to slide.”

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Mrs May announced plans to ban conversion therapy when she was Prime Minister in 2018 following a national survey where five per cent of LGBT+ people in the UK had been offered conversion therapy, while two per cent directly experienced it.

But when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, he dropped plans to ban any conversion therapy in March 2022. But this was U-turned within hours following backlash.

The government later outlined legislation – the Conversion Therapy Bill – in the Queen’s Speech which would ban conversion therapy intended to change someone’s sexual orientation in certain scenarios.

But it said that due to the “complexity of issues and need for further careful thought”, the legislation would not ban transgender conversion therapy.

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In the letter, Mrs May also regretted her past opposition to LGBT+ equality, having voted against the age of consent for homosexual acts from 18 to 16 in 1998.

In 2002, she voted against allowing unmarried same-sex couples to adopt children, and opposed the repeal of Section 28, which banned schools and local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality.

“Looking back now, there are issues I would have voted on differently, were I to vote on them today,” she wrote.