The Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion in Parliament calling for all schools to adopt a gender-neutral school uniform policy.

The early day motion, tabled by Lib Dem education spokesperson Layla Moran, comes after more than 100 state schools, and several high-profile independent schools, have switched to uniform policies that set the same rules for boys and girls.

The motion states: “That this House notes that the adoption of a gender-neutral school uniform policy creates an environment in which everyone is accepted and students are not labelled by the clothing they wear; welcomes the growing trend toward gender-neutral uniform policies; further welcomes that over 150 schools in the UK have already adopted such a policy.”

It calls on the UK government “to encourage all schools to introduce a non-prescriptive, gender-neutral school uniform policy”.

And it acknowledges a campaign led by schoolgirl Jess Insall to introduce gender-neutral school uniforms in Scotland, which has received broad support from the Scottish government.

Only a small number of early day motions end up being debated in parliament. They are mainly used to draw attention to particular topics.

Highgate School, in north London, and Brighton College, are two of the independent schools that have already adopted a gender-neutral uniform, in a bid to discourage gender stereotypes and embrace transgender and gender dysporic pupils.

And Priory School, a secondary in Lewes, East Sussex, last year banned girls from wearing skirts, to support transgender pupils and to deal with complaints about the decency of short skirts.

During last summer’s heatwave, around 30 boys at Isca Academy in Devon arrived at school in skirts after being told they could not wear shorts.