Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Welwyn Garden City, the Prime Minister said: ‘I don’t think that it’s reasonable for kids to be deemed so-called Gillick-competent to take decisions about their gender or irreversible treatments that they may have. I think there should be parental involvement at the very least.’

And he added: ‘I don’t think that biological men should be competing in female sporting events’.

He continued: ‘We will have a ban on gay conversion therapy, which to me is utterly abhorrent. ‘But there are complexities and sensitivities when you move from the area of sexuality to the question of gender. There, I’m afraid, there are things that I think still need to be worked out.’