Tories deny they are creating a 'toilet tsar' after being mercilessly mocked

The Tory government has denied it is creating a "toilet tsar" to stop gender neutral toilets after being mocked online.

An earlier version of a The Daily Telegraph report this weekend claimed that minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch was looking for a “lavatories tsar” as part new plans which will require all new non-residential builds to separate male and female toilets.

“A lavatories tsar will also be appointed after councils failed to reopen 10 per cent of facilities post-pandemic," it claimed in its print version of a story which was later amended online.

The government claimed this crackdown is meant to “protect single-sex spaces” – a move which has been criticised for marginalising members of the trans community.

Badenoch wrote in The Telegraph that the government has to “intervene where common sense disappears”, claiming that it was becoming increasingly common for businesses to have gender-neutral loos but no single-sex spaces.

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But when quizzed about the toilet tsar idea on Monday, the prime minister’s spokesperson flushed away any ideas and said there were "no plans" to create the role.

They said: “The government remains opposed to this. There are no plans for what has been claimed.”

Nevertheless, the government was mocked online regardless of whether they are just pulling our chain:

Some ideas are about the toilet, and some just belong in the toilet.

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