Who is Andrew Boff? The Conservative member who interrupted Suella Braverman’s speech

Andrew Boff at the Conservative party conference in Manchester (Image: Newsquest)

Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s speech at the Conservative Party conference was somewhat overshadowed by an intervention from a party member.

Andrew Boff, a member of the London assembly, objected to the MP’s comments about the LGBTQ+ community and was escorted from the premises.

Speaking to PA news agency after he was removed from his party’s conference, he criticised Ms Braverman’s “ridiculous” language.

He said: “This Home Secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology. It is fictitious, it is ridiculous.

“It is a signal to people who don’t like people who are LGBT+ people.”

The Herald: Home Secretary Suella Braverman

He added: “Words like that in the forum of the party that I love need to be challenged.”

Asked if he had planned the protest in advance, he said he attended the speech to “hear from her own mouth what her views were”.

Who is Andrew Boff?

The IT consultant is well known in London politics.

He has stood to be the Conservative candidate for mayor on four seperate occasions, coming in second place in 2000, 2008 and 2021.

He was first elected to the London assembly in 2008 and was re-elected in  2012, 2016 and 2021.

Read More: Suella Braverman warns over ‘hurricane of uncontrolled immigration’

Mr Boff ran for chairmanship of the assembly in 2011 but lost to the Liberal Democrat candidate.

He is a libertarian and a supporter of direct democracy, as well as an atheist and a humanist.

What did he say to get himself kicked out?

Mr Boff is openly gay, and took exception to Ms Braverman speaking about “gender ideology” during her conference speech.

He said: “there’s no such thing as ‘gender ideology'”, and when told to be quiet said “no, this is trash”.

Read More: Immigration, the HRA and the ‘war on woke’: Key points from Suella Braverman’s speech

What did he say afterward?

Mr Boff was unrepentant after being escorted out of the room.

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He told ITV News: “The home secretary said some things which i found quite objectionable, I consider them bullying, I consider them bullying trans people and the LGBT community.

“I was born and brought up that when you see a bully you challenge them and that’s what I was doing and I challenged her.”

What has Ms Braverman said?

She described his intervention as “silly” but said Mr Boff “should be forgiven and let back into conference”.