Melissa Poulton: MP Rachel Maclean accused of transphobic remarks

Transgender woman Melissa Poulton, who is standing as Bromsgrove's Green Party candidate in the next election, has labelled comments used by the Redditch MP as "transphobic".

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Mrs Maclean shared a post which described Miss Poulton as "a man who wears a wig and calls himself a 'proud lesbian'."

Commenting herself on X, Mrs Maclean said: "While the Greens don't know what a woman is, my Worcestershire neighbours the people of Bromsgrove certainly do."

Redditch MP Rachel Maclean (Image: Rachel Maclean)

The MP was recently appointed to serve as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and given responsibility for campaigning and women.

Miss Poulton faced criticism after sharing a video where she voiced her support for an initiative to help increase female representation in Parliament. 

Miss Poulton, who is based at Rainbow Hill, Worcester, described Mrs Maclean's post, which has now been removed, as "gaslighting" and "dog whistling"

Miss Poulton told the Advertiser: "It's quite strange that she would attack me.

"She's attacking me for being who I am and standing in a neighbouring constituency.

"I'm flabbergasted. We are not even going to be standing in the same constituency.

"When I have been speaking to residents they have been supportive of me".

Miss Poulton, who is also a Green Party community campaigner for Rainbow Hill in Worcester, said she aims to improve social housing and representation across all levels of government.

Melissa Poulton (Image: Melissa Poulton)

In a statement, Mrs Maclean said: “While I have apologised for any offence caused to the Green Party candidate, I have not and will not apologise for my comments relating to the Green Party’s extreme policies on gender and self ID ideology.

“Of course everyone should be free to live their lives and fulfil their potential regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity and to have the confidence and the freedom to be themselves.

"We should always have conversations relating to these issues in a respectful way, but there is a clear difference between sex and gender and I will not shy away from speaking up about those differences.

“That is why I am clear that the Conservative Party is the only party that understands what a woman is and will fight in the face of a barrage of criticism to stand up for women’s rights.”

Responding the the MP's post, Redditch Borough councillor Joe Baker, leader of the Redditch Labour group, said:

"Rachel Maclean does not have the right to call herself a friend of the LGBTQ community.

"Her actions by sharing this hateful post is indicative of why we still need pride marches.

"It is also a result of her own political party that openly supports Prime Ministers past that have been anti-LGBTQ.

"Rachel and her office should be ashamed of themselves".

When asked about Mrs Maclean's X post on BBC's Politics Midlands programme on Sunday (December 10), Aldridge-Brownhills MP Wendy Morton said: “I don’t know why she chose to put that message out.”

The Conservative MP added: "Politics is at times a very heated place to be but you still need respect in politics".