Baroness Ruth Deech, who made the comment during an interview on BBC Radio 4 (Picture: PA)

A peer caused outrage for describing vegetarians who eat ‘fake meat’ as ‘transgender vegetarians’.

Baroness Ruth Deech was criticised by both vegetarians and transgender rights activists after making the comment on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday morning.

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When asked whether she would ever eat vegetarian burgers made to taste like beef, the cross bench peer replied: ‘No I don’t think I would.’

She went on: ‘If you do eat meat you want to feel that you are somehow getting that protein into you.


‘If you are going to be vegetarian you might as well go out and eat spring onions and lettuce and so on and have done with it.



‘I don’t like this crossover really, it’s a sort of transgender vegetarianism.’

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Her comments, which came one day after Transgender Visibility Day, caused a backlash online, with people on Twitter accusing her of being transphobic.

One person wrote: ‘#ruthdeech what the hell is ‘transgender vegetarianism’?

‘It’s offensive to the transgender community, just as anti-Semitism is offensive to you and me. Please think about what you say.’

#ruthdeech what the hell is ‘transgender vegetarianism’? It’s offensive to the transgender community, just as anti-Semitism is offensive to you and me. Please think about what you say. @bbcpaddy #broadcastinghouse — Shelley Silas (@shelleysilas) April 1, 2018

Another said: ‘Ruth Deech “Transgender vegetarianism” @BBCRadio4 what?

‘Dismissive, very poor choice of words when talking about new inventions within the non-meat protein food options especially when yesterday was #TransDayOfVisibility.’

The peer was responding to a story in the Sunday Telegraph on fake meat burgers when she made the comment but she was roundly criticised, with one listener calling her a ‘patronising idiot’.

Baroness Deech joined the House of Lords in 2005 and is the former Principal of St Anne’s College at Oxford University.