Controversial MP Katherine Deves is accosted by angry pub-goer during tense public appearance

A Liberal candidate at the centre of controversy over her anti-transgender comments has been accosted by an angry punter at a local pub.

Katherine Deves, Scott Morrison’s personal selection to challenge Warringah MP Zali Steggall, attended an event at Forestville RSL on Sydney’s Northern Beaches called ‘Politics at the Pub’ on Friday evening when the confrontation occurred. 

The man, named Norris Smith, shouted: ‘This is a public event’ and ‘I’m a member of the club’ while RSL staff attempted to calm him down on the staircase leading to the room Ms Deves was heading to, according to News.com.au.

Mr Smith, who had not interacted with Ms Deves, was then reportedly asked to leave after being denied entry as a non-Liberal. 

Controversy erupted around Ms Deves’ candidacy after deleted tweets emerged where she described trans children as ‘surgically mutilated and sterilised’. 

She attended an event at Forestville RSL on Sydney’s Northern Beaches called ‘Politics at the Pub’, where a member started screaming at her and her team upon arrival

Ms Deves arrived at the event in a white escort vehicle 30 minutes late, and spoke briefly to reporters as she got out.

‘I have fought for women and children and now I’m fighting for Warringah. Thank you for coming along tonight. I’m looking forward to campaigning hard over the next four weeks and on the issues that affect the people in the room,’ she said.

Ms Deves then brushed past questions and moved inside the RSL, which refused entry to the journalists in attendance as it was an ‘invite only’ and ‘no media event’.

A worker at the pub told media they were all instructed not to let journalists in, saying: ‘They are all for freedom of speech, just as long as it’s Liberal party speech’.

The yelling from Mr Smith was heard only moments after Ms Deves had rushed inside the building.

The man who was restrained by staff also reportedly told onlookers that there had been an increase in young people presenting at his relative’s mental health clinic as a result of Ms Deves’ controversial comments about the transgender community.

‘My son works in mental health. He’s 29. He works with kids 12 to 25 and he said ‘this just caused a s***storm for us’. 

Ms Deves brushed past questions and moved inside the RSL, which refused entry to the journalists in attendance as it was an ‘invite only’ and ‘no media event’

Ms Deves had once said trans teenagers are ‘surgically mutilated’ adding she was ‘triggered’ by the rainbow Pride flag.

In tweets unearthed this week she also claimed there was a link between cross-dressing men and trans women being ‘sexual predators, even serial killers’.

She also wrote that gay men who have surrogate babies are engaged in ‘human rights violations’.

Ms Deves arrived at the event in a white escort vehicle 30 minutes late, with the car arriving at a high rate of speed. She rushed inside before offering one statement to media 

The mother-of-three wrote that surrogacy was a ‘human rights violation’ before saying, ‘Women’s bodies are not vehicles for a vanity project’

Last December, she labelled surrogacy as ‘reproductive prostitution’.

‘It is egregious exploitation of women, both the woman from the egg is ‘harvested’ and the pregnant woman who gives birth to the baby,’ she wrote. 

She also compared lobbying to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport to standing up against the Holocaust and transgender rights to the Nazis and the Stolen Generation.

It is not the first time the Warringah Liberal candidate has slammed surrogacy. Last December, Deves labelled it ‘reproductive prostitution’

In April 2021, Ms Deves tweeted about a trial where a Canadian father was taken to court for not supporting his teenager transitioning.

‘This will go down in history as akin to the grudge trials of the Third Reich,’ she wrote.

‘I do not like to invoke Nazism but the parallels are remarkable and deeply sinister.

‘We can only hope that when society comes to its senses, it’s redeemed by trials similar to the Nazi wife and the border guards.’

 Ms Deves once declared that trans teenagers are ‘surgically mutilated’ and that she’s ‘triggered’ by the rainbow Pride flag

Deves has since apologised for some of her posts, saying that her comments were ‘not acceptable’.

‘My advocacy for the rights and safety of women and girls is well known, and I stand by my desire to ensure we protect the safety of women and girls and our entire community,’ she said in a statement.

‘However, the language I used was not acceptable, and for that I apologise.’

Scott Morrison has refused to disendorse Ms Deves, saying that she ‘should not be silenced’.