Former Tory MP Miriam Cates lost her seat during July’s general election. (UK Parliament)

Former MP Miriam Cates has described sex education as a “psychological experiment” and called for it to be scrapped.

Cates, who lost the South Yorkshire seat of Penistone and Stocksbridge to Labour’s Marie Tidball at the general election, has once again railed against LGBTQ+ inclusivity in schools.

The former Tory MP, who lobbied to shelve a long-promised ban on trans-inclusive conversion therapy, opposed protections for transgender people and criticised “woke” culture, during her five years in the House of Commons, was speaking during a fringe event at the Tory Party conference, in Birmingham, on Sunday (29 September).
Former MP Miriam Cates has called for sex education to be dropped from the school curriculum. (UK Parliament)
Asked about safeguarding issues at schools, she responded: “Sex education… is a psychological experiment because who knows what teachers [say] about what is and isn’t morally acceptable sexually, is going to do to a generation of children.”

The statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) is currently under review by the government, although no changes have been announced yet.

RSHE guidelines were brought into review in March 2023 after more than 50 conservative MPs wrote to then prime minister Rishi Sunak, claiming that pupils were being exposed to “inappropriate content” and “radical and un-evidenced ideologies about sex and gender”.

Relationships education is compulsory for all primary-school children, while relationships and sex education is mandatory secondary school pupils.

Cates has called LGBTQ+ initiatives in schools ‘disturbing’

“I don’t think we can completely blame the Conservative government for what happened,” Cates said of a supposed lack of safeguarding. “However, they were not quick enough to identify what was happening and to resist it,” she said.

In April, she spoke out against potential LGBTQ+-inclusivity schemes in schools, claiming it was “disturbing” to ask children if they were gay.

Cates even teamed up with Rosie Duffield, who recently resigned the Labour whip, to oppose trans rights and ensure “women’s rights are protected at all costs”. She also demanded a full ban on transgender students socially transitioning in schools, claiming “adults with a particular ideology are pushing that on children, with damaging effects”.

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