Busy weekend on Twitter for Tory backbencher David TC Davies, who became embroiled in a nasty spat with the LGBT community when he proffered his view that “somebody possessing a penis & pair of testicles is definitely not a woman”:

Somebody possessing a penis & pair of testicles is definitely not a woman. This should be a biological fact not a matter for political debate. At leastnwe can agree on something.

— David Davies MP (@DavidTCDavies) January 27, 2018

The tweet provoked a strong response from the official LGBT Tories account:

David TC Davies’ transphobic views are abhorrent and out of kilter with Conservative Party policy. It’s clear that the T in his name stands for transphobe. It’s equally clear what the C stands for.

— LGBT+ Conservatives (@LGBTCons) January 27, 2018

Causing Davies to lodge a complaint with new Tory chairman Brandon Lewis:

It is appalling that a Conservative group which purports to stand for equality is willing to allude to the word “cunt” to describe MPs it doesnt like. You are a disgrace.

— David Davies MP (@DavidTCDavies) January 27, 2018

My “transphobic” view is that having a penis makes you male. You may disagree but implied use of word a “cunt” is abusive & misogynistic. You’re an official Conservative group. We are against social media abuse. I’ll be making official complaint to @BrandonLewis on Monday. pic.twitter.com/A3jj5RyBEF

— David Davies MP (@DavidTCDavies) January 27, 2018

Have fun with that one, Brandon…

After David Davies MP argued that we should be using dental checks to assess the age of supposed child migrants there was a predictable backlash fromt the usual suspects including posh tweeter and MP, Stella Creasy:

You make me ashamed to be in same Parliament @DavidTCDavies feeding this hatred and undermining child refugees #notimpressed https://t.co/sKc1aYZMgG

— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) October 18, 2016

Liam Byrne last night confirmed to Guido that when he was Immigration Minister he had considered tooth checks in principle before deciding they were impractical. Checking the teeth of child immigrants is not a niche view – 16 European countries have used dental checks to help determine the ages of asylum seekers or refugees. Former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw has just backed the plan:

The last Labour government advocated the same migrant dental checks that have caused so much outrage among the Twitterati today. Back in 2007 the then immigration minister Liam Byrne said that dental checks had to be considered to prevent abuse of the system:

“If it is true that a dental x-ray is able to establish within a more precise range an individuals’ age than any other form of determination then I think we have really got to look very hard at that evidence. We cannot have adults in the children’s system. Adults in the children’s system, I believe, pose a serious threat to our obligation to protect children effectively.”

A great find by Miles Goslett. As you can see above, this was covered by the BBC at the time. The David Davies proposal that is causing so much outcry was originally proposed by Labour nine years ago…

The geniuses at HuffPo are very angry with Brexit Secretary David Davis, accusing him of proposing dental age checks on refugees arriving in Britain and illustrating their story with a picture of him at the desptach box. Also boarding the outrage bus are the amateurs at the LibDem press office, though they are upset with Philip Davies over the dental checks idea. If these Remoaners had checked before rushing out their Brexiteer bashing stories and press releases, they’d have seen that it was actually proposed by backbencher David Davies. Guido has produced a handy graphic to help HuffPo and the LibDems:

There’s also Mims Davies, though less likely that mistake will be made. These Tory MPs all sound the same…

Graphic credit: @mrharrycole