The international trade minister denied reports that she had pushed through a policy to end the requirement for trans people to obtain a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before they could legally change gender when she was equalities minister in Theresa May’s government.
Ms Mordaunt told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “This has been rebutted many times. We all know what is going on. This is the type of toxic politics people want to get away from.
“We did a consultation. We asked healthcare professionals what they thought about the situation. That is the section I looked after. I managed that consultation. We didn’t actually on my shift produce a policy.
“There is a number of smears going on in the papers. My colleagues are very angry and upset that this is how the leadership contest is being dragged down.”
In the first televised debate on Friday, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - who also has responsibility for equality issues - claimed Mordaunt had backed a push for self-ID for those who wish to transition.
They said that together they had reversed the policy.
Mordaunt strongly challenged the claims. She said that while she had ordered a review of the Gender Recognition Act, she was not in favour of self-identification and would “not have divorced it from healthcare”.
However, The Sunday Times said it had seen government papers which appeared to suggest she was in favour of removing at least one element of the medical process required for transgender people to legally transition.
It said another paper from February 2020 confirmed that the Government’s support for self-identification ended after she was replaced as the minister in charge.