MP Lynne Featherstone calls for sacking of Julie Burchill over transgender column

Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone has called for the sacking of columnist Julie Burchill, after she has sparked outrage with her comments about transgender people in her newspaper column.

Freelance writer Julie Burchill, 53, described transgender people as “a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs” in a column for the Observer on Sunday (January 13), prompting widespread condemnation.

Former equalities minister Ms Featherstone, now at the Department for International Development, took to Twitter to vent her disgust at Ms Burchill’s view.

She wrote: “Julie Burchill rant against transgender community is absolutely disgusting - a bigoted vomit for which the Observer should sack her.”

Ms Burchill wrote the column in defence of columnist friend Suzanne Moore.

Moore was bombarded with abuse on Twitter after writing a magazine article in which she railed against the pressure for women to look like, as she put it, “Brazilian transsexuals”.

The Observer has since removed the column from their website under the weight of public criticism.