Bristol University’s students’ union has backed proposals to ban any “Terf” speakers who question the transgender status of women.

Terf, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists, is generally used as a derogatory term to describe those who believe that “identifying” as a woman is not the same as being born a woman. It can also be used to refer to people who are deemed to hold “transphobic” views.

In the past, campaigners have attempted to “no-platform” individual speakers for holding such views, but Bristol appears to the one of the first student attempts to instigate a blanket ban.

In 2015, students attempted to stop Germaine Greer, a leading feminist, from giving a lecture at Cardiff University on the basis that she had expressed transphobic views in the past.

Last October, the veteran lesbian activist Linda Bellos has been due to speak at Cambridge University, but a college feminist society revoked their invitation after she said she would be questioning trans politics.