Lily Madigan, who was born male but identifies as female, has applied to the Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme

The transgender teenager at the centre of a Labour Party row has applied for the Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme, angering and dismaying party members.

Female Labour supporters said the decision to open the mentoring scheme to all “self-defining women”, such as Lily Madigan, 19, who was born male but now identifies as female, was a “monstrous insult” to women in the party.

Ms Madigan became the party’s first transgender women’s officer last week, in Rochester and Strood, Kent. She had demanded that Anne Ruzylo resign as women’s officer in Bexhill and Battle, East Sussex, accusing her of transphobia. Ms Ruzylo quit, saying that she had been harassed by transgender campaigners.

Ms Madigan, 19, is a Labour Party women’s officer

The leadership programme was started last year in memory of the murdered MP