Graham Norton says trans people ‘need to be protected, rather than feared’

TV host compared Twitter to a ‘24-hour pub brawl’ and said it was not the place to discuss transgender rights

Graham Norton has defended the rights of transgender people and suggested that the discourse on social media only conflates aggression towards them.

The TV host was interviewed by The Sunday Times, where he said that he was bewildered by how “angry” some people became over the subject.

He said that discussing transgender issues on Twitter, which he referred to as “a 24-hour pub brawl”, did not help.

“I feel like trans people are a very vulnerable group and a tiny group,” he said. “And it’s been conflated into this thing, as if there are trans armies coming over the hills.”

Norton said he believed trans people “need to be protected, rather than feared. And I know there’s some aggression, but any group looking for equality and progress will only get there if there’s an extremist vanguard, and that’s how you shift things to the middle ground.”

In the same interview, Norton offered opinions on various political figures, including home secretary Priti Patel, whom he compared to a school lunch monitor .

Patel is currently under fire from the culture sector, as it is believed her crackdown on immigration is one of the stumbling blocks that caused the government to “reject” an offer by the EU to waive visas for musicians touring EU countries.

A “standard” proposal to exempt performers from the huge cost and bureaucracy for 90 days was turned down, The Independent has been told – because the government is insisting on denying that to EU artists visiting this country.

“It is usually in our agreements with third countries, that [work] visas are not required for musicians. We tried to include it, but the UK said no,” an EU source close to the negotiations said.

Musicians and music fans have reacted with fury to the news, with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke branding those behind the decision as “spineless f***s”.