Robert Webb criticised for attacking trans kids charity Mermaids

Robert Webb, star of Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, has sparked anger by attacking trans children’s charity Mermaids as he announced he was a “gender-critical feminist.”

On Saturday (December 22), the BAFTA-winning British comedian tweeted his support of Sunday Times journalist Janice Turner, along with trans-exclusionary radical feminist campaigners Julie Bindel—who once said a “trans cabal” was “running a witch hunt”—and Rebecca Reilly-Cooper, adding: “Mermaids sucks.”

Webb quote-tweeted a post by Turner in which she said trans children’s charity Mermaids spreads “dangerous unscientific ideology… about gender- nonconforming kids” above a link to a Sunday Times column of hers titled: “Trans ideologists are spreading cod science.”

Webb wrote: “This won’t make me popular in certain quarters but f**k it—I’m with Janice and I don’t say it often enough.

“Also @boodleoops also @bindelj I’ve talked to some really nice trans people here & they have my solidarity if they want it. But Mermaids sucks.”

Robert Webb: “I’m with Janice and I don’t say it often enough… I’ve talked to some really nice trans people here & they have my solidarity if they want it. But Mermaids sucks” (arobertwebb/twitter)

After restaurant critic and Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby presenter Giles Coren voiced his support for Turner’s cause, Webb said that pro-trans men “can shove their influence up their arses.

“I’ll influence them under the table. Great column. Sorry I’ve been such a coward this year. Merry Christmas (and you too, comedy brother-in-law).”

The 46-year-old proceeded to tweet that “telling boys & girls they are in the wrong body because they don’t conform to gender stereotypes is certainly a step back into the dark.”

“Telling all kids like me and Abbie that we were born into the wrong body & therefore need a lifetime of medication… that’s just wrong.”

— Robert Webb

Webb later claimed that he was pro-trans, writing: “I oppose transphobia *and* misogyny. Like, y’know… any decent human.

“I’m a gender-critical feminist,” he added, before tweeting to say an accusation that he was “picking on children” was “dishonest and low.”