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Belfast-born top Tory Conor Burns was speaking after it emerged that dozens of staff, some of whom had faced disciplinary action over alleged transgressions against trans orthodoxy, had written to the civil service top brass to demand the issue is taken seriously.

The civil servants complained that the precepts of trans activists – such as their claim there is no firm definition of man or woman, and that any man who declares himself a woman must be treated as such – had taken on the status of hard facts within the service.

Mr Burns, who is gay, also criticised the “lazy” conflation of transgenderism with gay issues.

He said that “a tiny minority” of activist had been quite successful in advancing the acceptance of their “very niche position” on gender.

"I always remember a very lovely phrase of Lady Thatcher's, that 'there is nothing more obstinate than a fashionable consensus',” said Mr Burns.

"I'm extremely pleased civil servants are now starting to challenge this."

As the News Letter has previously reported, the NI civil service has adopted guidance effectively ordering staff to use someone’s self-declared pronouns or face disciplinary action, including possible dismissal.