A Scottish Labour MP has urged campaigners to lobby her colleagues about the problems with her own party's planned conversion therapy ban.

Tracy Gilbert told a fringe event at the party’s conference in Liverpool, that many people in parliament would not be aware of the potential pitfalls of the legislation, announced in The King's Speech earlier this year.

The UK Government has said their Conversion Practices Bill will ban practices aimed at changing or suppressing someone's gender identity or sexual orientation.

However, there are a number of people with concerns over what that could mean in practice, particularly around the role of clinicians.

The new MP for Edinburgh North and Leith is understood to be anxious that legislation is completely clear on what exactly is and is not being banned.

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Speaking at a meeting organised by the Labour Women’s Declaration (LWD), Ms Gilbert said politicians needed to be made aware of these anxieties.

"So I think it's more of an education piece, and having those conversations with your local politicians," she said. 

"Contact your MPs and let them know why, what the problem with it [the conversion therapy ban] is because most people want to do the right thing and will just not look beyond what they think they're doing.

"And just having those conversations and having those persuasive conversations will be the way to make that look better.

"And obviously that's something we'll be doing in the parliament."

In her review into gender services for children Dr Hilary Cass, reported that medical professionals had expressed concerns about “potential accusations of conversion practice.”

She later told MSPs that clinicians were anxious that if they suggest talking therapies to people who are coming to them with issues of gender identity they might then be prosecuted.

“Everyone should be protected from conversion therapy,” the paediatrician said. “It’s a completely unacceptable practice.”

“I don’t know how we get that balance right of protecting people from conversion therapy and not frightening therapists who are just doing their job and having an appropriate exploratory conversation with a young person,” she added.

In a briefing for MPs sent out in July, LWD said there was the potential for the law to be “misused by activists, as an attempt to limit discussions about how best to help gender-questioning people.”

They said: "This new bill will need very careful scrutiny in both houses [of Parliament] plus extensive consultation and stakeholder engagement to ensure it is developmentally informed – allowing for normal identity exploration in children and adolescents – and does not inadvertently harm any of the people it aims to protect."

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Ahead of an appearance at Labour conference, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, said governments needed to heed the Cass review’s warnings.

She said: “The review talked about an increasing number of children and young people being referred to NHS support about their gender identity, including a high number of teenage girls who have been impacted by anxiety and depression in recent years.

“They are more prone to low self-esteem and body image dissatisfaction. Additionally, the report addresses challenges faced by same-sex attracted children who have suffered from homophobia by wider society or within their families, or who have struggled with accepting their sexual orientation.

“We need to provide the time and space to make a full inquiry of the causes of the distress rather than fast-track children on to a path of gender transition that usually begin with puberty blockers but could result in more permanent changes with long lasting consequences.

“In fact by putting them on that high-speed train, and given that many may be same sex attracted, you may actually be subjecting them to the conversion therapy you are trying to ban.”

Earlier this month, the Scottish Government shelved plans for their own conversion therapy law in favour of taking a UK-wide approach.

The push for the ban had been a key ask of the Scottish Greens during their time in government with both Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf.