The Brexit Party just revealed its second transgender candidate for the next general election
The Brexit Party has announced its general election candidate for South Northamptonshire is transgender hairdressing teacher Rachel Warby.
The 52-year-old, from Stamford, Lincolnshire, is the second trans woman that the Brexit Party has announced will stand for them in the event of a general election.
Warby told the Northampton Chronicle that the Brexit Party is “more diverse” and “inclusive” than people think.
“I consider myself to have been transgender all my life, I had the operation in 1992 so I’ve spent 27 years of my life as me,” she said.
“So for me, it’s quite ordinary and normal, but it gives an interesting perspective on politics as it’s quite on-trend and a big thing for my party to be seen as inclusive.”
Warby said that it was teaching hairdressing that introduced her to “obsessive” EU regulations. She is calling for a prompt Brexit, is anti-HS2 and building on green-belt land, and has concerns about non-biodegradable plastics and non-free range food.
“We all have a duty in society, and a responsibility to help each other through difficult periods in our lives,” she said.
“I believe we are all guardians of democracy and we have a duty to preserve this, it is fundamentally what holds us all together, without it we lose what it is that creates our freedom, liberty and effective civil society.”
The current South Northamptonshire MP is cabinet minister and Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom.
Warby said: “It’s quite an honour to go up against such an incredible, intellectual woman and I hope I can gain as much experience from this as people backing me.
“I took the challenge on as I thought, ‘Great I will go for it’, because Andrea did vote for the dreaded withdrawal agreement, we call it a ‘surrender’.
“So as she voted for it, I don’t think she wants the clean Brexit we need, so hopefully there will be a lot of people in the South Northamptonshire area who see that and the need to govern ourselves and regenerate.
“It will be an interesting campaign.”
Brexit Party trans candidate in Lincolnshire.
On August 5, the Brexit Party chose a trans woman to stand in Lincolnshire at the next general election.
Jessica Swift, 52, will be the candidate for Grantham and Stamford.
Swift is currently the finance and systems director at the Fruehauf Group, a Grantham business that makes tipping trailers for lorries. She said she wants to be the UK’s first trans MP, adding: “As a proud trans woman, I will always fight for equality and the rights of all groups in society.”
If elected at the next general election, Swift and Warby could become the first openly trans MPs in Westminster.
To date, no trans MP has been elected. In the 2017 snap election, seven trans people stood as candidates but none were elected.