The Labour Party government in Britain has been lambasted for descending to new levels of wokery as a newly appointed health minister has been revealed to have defended people identifying as llamas.
Following Andrew Gwynne’s downfall and ousting as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention due to the leak of offensive WhatsApp group messages, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer appointed former shadow women’s minister Ashley Dalton in his place this week.
The selection of Dalton was described by The Telegraph as Starmer’s “maddest ministerial appointment yet”, given her penchant for taking extreme woke positions, particularly on issues surrounding gender.
The openly gay minister previously declared, per the Daily Mail, that “Trans women aren’t male. They’re women” and argued against having separate bathrooms for men and women at all.
However, it was a 2016 exchange on Twitter that has drawn the most attention. When pressed on whether she thought people who identify as llamas should be taken seriously, Dalton replied: “Yes. And treat you with dignity and respect.”
Commenting on the outlandish positions taken by the new health minister, Reform UK MP for Ashfield Lee Anderson wrote on X: “The Madness Continues. Some people… wonder why I sometimes refer to the House of Commons as a lunatic asylum.”
Anderson appeared in Parliament on Tuesday and asked, “If I have a family member who presents as a llama and suddenly becomes ill in the middle of the night, should they send for a doctor, a vet, or a straight jacket?”
Dodging the question, Health Secretary Wes Streeting replied to Anderson: “My honourable friend, the minister for public health, believes in treating every human being with the dignity and respect they deserve, even the honourable gentleman (Anderson).”
The appointment of Dalton came in the wake of the sacking of her predecessor Andrew Gwynne, who came under fire after leaked WhatsApp group messages were made public by the Mail on Sunday.
According to the paper, Gwynne had made “racist” remarks about Labour MP Diane Abbott over her becoming the first black female member of parliament and “sexist” comments about Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner performing an undisclosed sex act.
Gwynne had also reportedly said that someone “sounds too Jewish” from their name and had mocked a 72-year-old constituent for complaining about a lack of timely garbage collection.
“Dear resident, F*** your bins. I’m re-elected and without your vote. Screw you. PS: Hopefully you’ll have croaked it by the all-outs,” he is said to have written as a suggested response to the pensioner.
The scandal of Dalton’s past woke remarks also comes as the Labour Party is attempting to rebrand its image to a serious party of government as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has surpassed Labour in the polls.
In addition to publishing footage of migrant deportations, the Labour government has also reportedly shelved plans to make it easier for people to change their gender. However, the burgeoning “llama-gate” story may threaten to undermine Labour’s attempts to shed its woke brand.