NORTH Cornwall’s MP has deleted his Twitter (X) account following an argument – which saw him mocked by Harry Potter author JK Rowling and led to him accusing a women’s rights group of having a “fascist agenda”.

The criticism of North Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat MP, Ben Maguire, started after he called author JK Rowling “desperate for attention and relevance”, during a debate on pride month.

During the parliamentary debate, culture minister Sir Chris Bryant criticised the decision by some pride march organisers to ban political parties from participating. Pride organisers said the ban was in response to the treatment of transgender people by political parties and the Supreme Court’s ruling on the legal definition of a woman.

Mr Maguire weighed in on the debate, saying: “As well as politicians, public figures desperate for attention and relevance like JK Rowling and others have poisoned the public discourse with attacks on our trans community, all under the false dichotomy that you cannot be a true feminist and protect women’s rights without attacking and abusing the trans community.

“A phoney culture war which has left trans people fearful just to be themselves. The tone of this debate has been so un-British. It is much more like the US, where everything is dealt with in extreme absolutes.”

JK Rowling, who has been very vocal on women’s rights, but has received criticism for her comments about trans people, also responded to Mr Maguire’s comments on social media. She replied to a post on X from former MP Joanna Cherry, who wrote: “Several speeches into the pride month debate in @HouseofCommons and no mention of the importance of lesbian rights. Instead, lots of disinformation about an attack on trans rights and a cowardly attack by the Lib Dems spokesperson on JK Rowling.”

The author quoted the post, writing: “In the immortal words of Dennis Healey [sic], it was like being savaged by a dead sheep.” Mr Maguire replied to her comment, saying: “MP accuses writer of dealing only in constant insults regarding the trans community; JK Rowling responds: He’s just a dead sheep.”

The spat exploded further still after Mr Maguire responded to criticism from For Women Scotland, a “group of women from across Scotland working to protect and strengthen women and children’s rights” with 70,000 followers on X.

He told them: “Such a shame that you feel you must shut down anyone that might slightly disagree with you. I’ve spent my life defending women’s rights – most recently on the @CommonsHomeAffairs looking at violence against women and girls.

“Guessing that doesn’t fit your fascist agenda though – I must be the enemy of the people as I said in my speech our public discourse now is BLACK or WHITE and RIGHT or WRONG. What a sad indictment on humanity.”

The MP, who then deleted his X account, was heavily criticised for his use of the phrase “fascist agenda”. The For Women Scotland group responded: “This has been archived and we will be consulting tomorrow on next steps. This is a disgusting allegation to make about a grassroots women’s rights group who are the target of death threats. To complain that everything is ‘black and white’ and then call those who disagree with you ‘fascist’ would be entertaining of it were not so serious.”

Bev Jackson, an author and co-founder of AllianceLGB, posted: “The @LibDems shadow attorney-general @BenMaguireNC appears to have realised that he had scurrilously defamed @ForWomenScot. He has deleted his account – in the hope of containment?”

LesbianLabour, a group campaigning for lesbians within Labour and the wider Labour movement, wrote on X: “Ben Maguire has deactivated his Twitter account but remains an elected MP and Shadow Attorney General for the LibDems. One of the 2024 intake whose allegiance to identity ideologies blinds them to the scientific and factual evidence that ‘trans people’ are not the most ‘vulnerable’.”

On noting that Mr Maguire had suspended his account, SEEN in Journalism – a network for journalists and content-makers “who seek to restore accuracy and impartiality to media coverage of sex and gender” – added: “This is not the end of the story. The comments were defamatory and will need to be addressed.”

Mr Maguire was contacted to ask why he had deleted his X / Twitter account - and if he now regretted what he wrote - the MP responded: “I regret that comment which was made in the heat of the moment. This whole debate has become quite toxic, so I felt it best to step away from X for a while.”