Steve Baker has been accused of being transphobic after saying that “women don’t have penises” and men can “just declare themselves women” to enter female bathrooms.

The Conservative MP for Wycombe made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

His remarks were criticised by Toni Brodelle, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wycombe, who labelled them transphobic.

The teacher, who took over as Chair of High Wycombe Pride in 2022, accused Mr Baker of “dog whistle politics”.

She told the LDRS: “I think its anti-trans, something masquerading as liberal. He is very clearly saying that he has not yet understood.

“Whilst you are busy getting with the programme there are LGBT people in the streets being assaulted and harassed.”

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In a follow-up statement to the LDRS, Mr Baker clarified the comments he made in the interview.

He said: “My approach to trans issues is live and let live. As I said in my interview, trans people should be free to live as they wish. And I am very pleased to have such great support from LGBT+ Conservatives: they know I want minority rights to be protected.

“What I was explaining in my interview is that there is a generational shift occurring in society which raises difficult and sensitive problems. For my generation, everything was and is very binary, and women had to fight in our lifetime for important rights. For the generation after, everything is much more fluid, and we are much more advanced on women’s rights.”

Bucks Free Press: Toni Brodelle criticised Mr Baker's comments about transgender people and drag queens

He added: “The irony of Toni’s criticism is that the correct answer to this is my liberalism: I am very clear that my view is live and let live, that we should uphold minority rights, and that trans people should be free to live their lives as they wish.”

Mr Baker made his original remarks about transgender people after being asked about Rishi Sunak’s recent speech at the Conservative Party conference in which the Prime Minister said: “A man is a man and a woman is a woman, it is just common sense.”

Mr Baker said he supported the Prime Minister’s comments and denied that the Tory leader was trying to stoke a culture war around transgender issues.

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The 52-year-old MP told the LDRS: “People about my age – 50 years and older – have grown up with an incredibly different approach to this.

“So, for me, for the Prime Minister, for others, a woman is an adult human female and does not have a penis.”

He added: “I want people who are members of the LGBT community – whether they are trans women, trans men, gay, whatever – to be able to live their lives as who they are, safely and secure and free and happy in their identity.”

Mr Baker also said: “Ladies say this to me often: it is just too much to have men just to declare themselves women and go into their spaces.”

Ms Brodelle, who stood as an MP in 2019, argued that conflating transgender women and concerns about women’s safety amounted to “dog whistle politics”.

She said: “The Tory Party is in freefall at the moment. They are engaging in dog whistle politics and it is degrading the political debate.”

Mr Baker, who attended Wycombe Pride in August and claims he knows drag queens, also criticised “hypersexualised” drag performances in front of children.

He said: “What a strange world we live in. Drag acts were uncontroversial, peak hours, family entertainment when I was a child.

“And yet today, we have ended up with hypersexualised drag acts in front of children and of course that is extremely controversial.”

Ms Brodelle said: “He is conflating those issues, if he is talking about hypersexualised drag acts, let’s talk about hypersexualised heteronormative acts at same time. You know twerking, the lyrics in songs.”