Police record hate incident against Tory deputy chair after trans row with Greens
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A Tory deputy chairman has said police have recorded her for a “hate incident” following a transphobia row with a Green Party candidate.
Redditch MP Rachel Maclean said the Greens “don’t know what a woman is” when they selected Melissa Poulton, a trans woman, to stand in a neighbouring Worcestershire constituency.
She has now said local police have recorded a “non-crime hate incident” (NCHI) against her after the remark, a decision she called “wrong and ridiculous”.
NCHIs are controversial tools that mean the individual is not charged with a crime but a complaint may be logged against them and disclosed if they apply for certain jobs.
Mrs Maclean, who was appointed the Conservative deputy chairman for women in November, said NCHIs had been stretched beyond their original remit to include “any protected characteristic”.
She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Originally NCHIs were introduced in wake of Stephen Lawrence case and were used as intelligence gathering tools.
“It seems wrong and ridiculous to use the same tool to record that a woman said a man cannot be a woman or a lesbian.
“They have been widened since to cover any protected characteristic. It stretches credibility to believe that gender critical women are in the same category as racist murderers when it comes to police data.”
Mrs Maclean is widely reported to have shared a post on social media describing Ms Poulton as a “man who wears a wig and calls himself a ‘proud lesbian’” earlier this month.
She added her own comment: “While the Greens don’t know what a woman is, my Worcestershire neighbours the people of Bromsgrove certainly do.”
The Redditch MP said she had apologised for offence caused to Ms Poulton, but added: “I have not and will not apologise for my comments relating to the Green Party’s extreme policies on gender and self-ID ideology.”
In March, then-home secretary Suella Braverman attempted to clamp down on NCHIs with new guidance requiring police to prioritise freedom of expression over offensive, controversial or derogatory language.
However, the Welsh Secretary, David TC Davies, was later investigated by Gwent Police regarding a leaflet about a traveller site, on the grounds that it may have been an NCHI.
A source close to Mrs Braverman said the police should be “laser-focused on cutting crime” and that the investigation seemed to be “a waste of time”.
