Charity criticises Boris Johnson over plans to scrap law making gender change easier

A charity has hit out at Boris Johnson over his plans to ditch a new law allowing people to “self-identify” as a different gender.

Theresa May's government drafted the Gender Recognition Act, which would have enabled transgender people change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis.

But the plans have now been shelved by Number 10 with ministers now set to announce a ban on "gay cure" therapies, in what was described as an attempt to placate LGBT people, according to The Sunday Times.

LGBT charities criticised the move after it was revealed on Sunday, with Nancy Kelley, chief executive of Stonewall, describing it as “extremely disappointing”.

“The report in today’s newspapers, that the government looks set to drop plans to make it more straightforward for trans people to get legal recognition of their gender, is extremely disappointing if accurate,” Kelley said.

“These reforms would have made many trans people's lives much easier, as we know from the changes already made in Ireland five years ago.

“The majority of the public responses to the consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act supported these changes.

“This is another blow to our community during a difficult time.”

According to The Sunday Times, the act’s reversal was reffered to in a leaked paper which being slated for publication by the equalities minister Liz Truss at the end of July before MPs break for the summer.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK

The paper is said to be part of a public consultation which found that of the 100,000 respondents, 70% were in favour of allowing people to self-identify as a man or a woman.

However, officials were said to believe that the results had been "skewed" by an "avalanche" of responses generated by trans rights groups.

A Government Equalities Office spokesperson said: "We will publish our response to our consultation on the Gender Recognition Act this summer.

"The minister for women and equalities has also made clear that she will be bringing forward plans to end conversion therapy shortly."