A Liberal Democrat peer has claimed women cannot call themselves feminists unless they support gender neutral toilets.

Former minister Lynne Featherstone made the controversial claim as it emerged the party had recruited the transgender daughter of a convicted paedophile as a new diversity officer.

Aimee Challenor has been taken on by the party in Coventry despite leaving the Greens after her election agent father was arrested for raping a 10-year-old girl.

The move emerged after Baroness Featherstone, who is the Lib Dem’s energy and climate change spokesman, wrote a blog celebrating LGBT History Month claiming that the party had been campaigning for “gender neutral bathrooms, school uniforms and 'X' option on passports, official documents and forms for those who do not wish to identify as male or female.”

Calling for reform of the Gender Recognition Act, she added: “I also have a message to those people who believe they can restrict trans women's rights, deny their human rights or exclude them from women-only spaces in the name of feminists. You are not feminists. Your views are not welcome in the Liberal Democrats.”