Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended a controversial former university lecturer’s speech in Oxford as protests are expected outside the event.
Kathleen Stock is set to speak at the University of Oxford today, with a number of protests from LGBTQ+ groups planned over the lecturer’s views on gender identity.
Ms Stock previously quit her job as a lecturer at the University of Sussex over her views amid accusations of transphobia. Now, Oxford’s vice-chancellor has defended her speech while other groups have called for her invitation to be rescinded.
PM Sunak told The Telegraph: “A free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others.
“A tolerant society is one which allows us to understand those we disagree with, and nowhere is that more important than within our great universities.”
Kathleen Stock left her job at the University of Sussex in 2021 after “a very difficult few years” where she was accused of transphobia.
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A coalition of Oxford organisations and activists will hold a Trans+ Pride event in Oxford today which will include a rally and march culminating outside the Oxford Union, where Prof Stock is due to speak at the 200-year-old debating society.
Prof Stock’s talk comes days after a group of Oxford University academics and staff signed a letter supporting the right of transgender students to speak out against her.
Oxford academics and staff first wrote to The Daily Telegraph, condemning the approach of those who opposed Prof Stock’s views.
The BBC reported that the open letter, shared on Saturday by the university’s LGBTQ+ society and signed by 100 academics and staff, said: “We believe that trans students should not be made to debate their existence.”
Earlier this month Oxford University’s vice-chancellor Irene Tracey defended the right for Prof Stock to speak there as a matter of “freedom of speech”, saying she believes that part of the university’s role is to enable students to deal with differing viewpoints.
She told The Times newspaper: “Most students actually get it and are quite impassioned about the fact that people should have a range of views.”
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