Daily Mail

Trans activists force minister to f lee campus

- By Imogen Horton

Education Secretary nadhim Zahawi was hounded from a university campus by trans activists who chanted abuse including ‘tory scum’.

they accused the cabinet minister of being a ‘transphobe’ and ‘inciting hatred’ because he has defined women as ‘adult human females’.

Security guards rushed to guide Mr Zahawi away as around 30 students waving trans flags and placards at the university of Warwick, near coventry, followed him from a lecture theatre to his car.

He had been asked to speak on Friday to the university’s conservati­ve associatio­n – an invitation which prompted demands from the Warwick Pride student society to deplatform him.

While Mr Zahawi was talking, protesters banged on the door, chanted and played loud music in a bid to drown him out, the associatio­n’s chairman tom Garth said.

Warwick Pride claimed Mr Zahawi played ‘a significan­t role in institutio­nalised transphobi­a’ and that his presence on campus would violate student union policy on equality and diversity.

Mr Zahawi is spearheadi­ng a new Freedom of Speech Bill that would mean students’ unions and universiti­es could be fined or sued for no-platformin­g speakers.

Politics student Mr Garth, 20, told the daily telegraph that as Mr Zahawi left the members-only talk, ‘protesters rushed towards him and one landed a blow on to one of our executive members’ head, although he wasn’t injured. then when Zahawi was exiting with security, they tried to follow him all the way to his car.’

officials at Warwick, part of the Russell Group of leading universiti­es, are thought to be making a formal complaint to the students’ union over the incident.

a spokesman for the conservati­ve associatio­n said the protesters showed their ‘unwillingn­ess to exist alongside those with a difference of opinion’.

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 ?? ?? Protest mob: Trans activists at the visit of Nadhim Zahawi, right
Protest mob: Trans activists at the visit of Nadhim Zahawi, right

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