JUNE is Pride month and I have long campaigned for equal rights for the LGBT+ community.

The Labour Party celebrates the LGBT+ community and has a rich history of championing LGBT+ rights. In Cornwall, although we have taken huge strides forward in recent years, compared with other parts of the country, we still have a way to go to ensure levels of acceptance and inclusion meet those of elsewhere.

As the party of equality, Labour will always stand up for LGBT+ rights and tackle LGBT+ discrimination. I am deeply conscious that many LGBT+ people feel scared and anxious as LGBT+ rights are rolled back across the globe, far-right groups use hateful rhetoric, and parties like Reform, it seems, turn a blind eye to homophobia and transphobia in their own ranks.

I will always reject the politics of division and hate, and the government will build on Labour’s long history of fighting for equality. The last Labour government did more for LGBT+ rights than any other in UK history, including: voting for a resolution committing to lesbian and gay rights; removing the terrible Section 28 law from the statute books; passing the law that allowed trans people to legally change their gender; introducing the Equality Act that protects LGBT+ people from discrimination; lifting the ban on lesbians, gay men and bi people serving in the armed forces; introducing civil partnerships; and introducing laws to allow unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to apply for joint adoption.

Today, this government is pressing ahead with our manifesto commitments, including: equalising the law so hate crime towards LGBT people attracts the same severity of sentence as those motivated by race or religion; improving the experience of LGBT+ personnel and veterans in the Armed Forces and delivering financial recognition to LGBT veterans, as per the Etherton Review; providing nearly half a million pounds worth of specialist funding for LGBT+ focused domestic violence services; and something that is particularly important to me, delivering a full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices.

Conversion practices are abuse, plain and simple. They are acts that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, mostly in relation to LGBT people. Such practices have no place in society and must be stopped. Banning them was in the Labour manifesto and the government remains committed to bringing forward legislation to ban abusive conversion practices, starting with publishing our draft Bill as highlighted in the King’s Speech.

Whilst we are working at pace to bring this important piece of draft legislation forward, earlier this year I was part of the team at the Council of Europe that won a vote on a report calling for the ban of conversion practices across Europe. Whilst the far right and religious extremists argued against the ban, I was delighted that in the end it passed comfortably, with like-minded politicians from both the left and centre right uniting to pass the report. This is the kind of progressive cross-party alliance that can bring profound social change.