'Culture wars row' erupts as two civil servants sued by Whitehall colleagues over claim trans people can't change sex

At the heart of the dispute is the Sex Equality and Equity Network, an arm’s-length body to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Two civil servants who are members of the group are being sued by a colleague who is attempting to force the department to shut down the network and discipline the employees.

Co-chairman of the network Andreas Mueller said he was accused of disputing a "post that equated gender-critical people with racists and homophobes" and discussing the meaning of safeguarding following a post minimising genuine concerns by women about single-sex bathrooms."

Mueller, who is being sued alongside Elspeth Duemmer-Wrigley, said he was also accused of "liking" gender-critical social media posts.

Chief executive of the charity Sex Matters Maya Forstater which is backing Mueller and Duemmer-Wrigley said "the harm would be felt not only right across the civil service but in workplaces all over the UK" if they were unsuccessful in their claim.

She told The Times that if the claimant succeeded in banning the network "it could close down the space for debate that was opened up by my win in the employment appeal tribunal".

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A Government spokesman told GB News: "We are unable to comment on ongoing legal proceedings."

It comes after a former special advisor claimed LGBT+ groups are now "monomaniacally obsessed" with trans issues and the civil service is struggling to grapple with diversity and inclusion.

Henry Newman, who worked in the Cabinet Office in the early 2010s and later provided advice to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, told a fringe event at the 2024 Tory Party conference to discuss efforts to make the civil service more accessible.

Since leaving Downing Street, Newman has created a blog called "The Whitehall Project" as he looks to highlight Labour’s links within the corridors of power.

He said: "I don’t think the civil service is getting it right at the moment, no. I don’t think the civil service or public sector is unique in that. I think it’s a much broader problem.

"Someone was asking perhaps provocatively yesterday [Sunday] whether the whole question of EDI and ESG work is an ultra-low interest rate phenomenon and as we move out of that whether companies have to start focusing on other things. I think there is truth in that."

He added: "I find declaring pronouns mildly absurd and the acronym soup very difficult to deal with.

"When I was working in the Cabinet Office and we were coming up with an early version of a diversity plan, this was back in the early 2010s, I found even the idea that my employer wanted to know with whom I sleep and collect data on sexuality mildly problematic."