AN MP has described the “pain and agony” caused as his partner underwent conversion therapy.

The Queen’s Speech included proposals to ban conversion therapy that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation in certain scenarios.

During a debate in the House of Commons on the government’s legislative proposals, Lloyd Russell-Moyle warned the Conversion Therapy Bill contains a “loophole” for over-18s, and criticised the proposals for not including a ban on trans conversion therapy.

The government said the bill will aim to stop “abhorrent practices which do not work and cause extensive harm” and protect people’s freedom to love who they want.

But it has also said that due to the “complexity of issues and need for further careful thought”, the legislation will not protect transgender people.

The ban on conversion therapy for over-18s would also only be for those “who do not consent and who are coerced or forced to undergo” the practices.

Mr Russell-Moyle said in conversion therapy, “we have a bill that is completely useless”.

The Brighton Kemptown MP said: “Yes, it will protect under 18-year-olds. But every over 18-year-old that goes, which are the majority that attend conversion therapies, of course will sign a waiver because they will be told if they want to stay in their church, in their community, in their friends and family, they will have to go on to it.

“And they will still have to go through conversion therapy. Now there is a good argument, I think, about including trans people in a ban on conversion therapy, that’s not about saying that trans people shouldn’t have psychotherapy and be able to discuss their options as they go forward.”

Mr Russell-Moyle revealed that his partner went through conversion therapies twice during his “long process of coming out”>.

“He comes from an evangelical Christian background. And it has caused huge amounts of pain and agony,” he added.

“I don’t want other people to go through that pain and agony, and the loophole there that the Government have given, I’m afraid, is just not worth then, the rest of the Bill, the paper it will be written on, and I am deeply, deeply saddened by that.”

He added: “Conversion therapy is when you enter therapy with the idea that the therapist is trying to force you into one direction. That is wholly unethical in whatever form it is, for trans people, for gay people, for any form of therapy, actually.

“The Government’s failure to ban trans conversion therapy, the government’s failure to ban conversion therapy full-stop, for over 18-year-olds, is a real missed opportunity.”

Home Office minister Kit Malthouse asked if he was proposing that there should be an “absolute ban on conversion therapy at all, even if an adult consents”.

Mr Russell-Moyle, who has previously said he came out as gay as a teenager but had known about his sexuality in primary school, responded: “I don’t think any therapies should ever have a prescribed outcome.

“Of course, friends persuading you one way or another, but that is not a therapeutic programme.”