Keir Starmer has refused to stop a plot by Ministers including Sir Chris Bryant and Dame Angela Eagle to thwart last week’s Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally women. The Telegraph has more.
Labour Ministers and MPs will this week meet to discuss how to promote trans rights in the wake of the landmark judgment. They are understood to be planning to take their demands to the Equalities Minister.
The plot emerged in leaked WhatsApp messages from a group chat of Labour MPs, including Ministers Sir Chris Bryant and Dame Angela Eagle.
Both railed against comments made by Baroness Falkner, the equality watchdog chief, who said the ruling meant trans women would be banned from women’s single-sex spaces. They urged colleagues to meet them to discuss their concerns.
However, Downing Street refused to take any action against the two Ministers, claiming they were not trying to undermine the judgment.
While the Government has said it welcomed Wednesday’s ruling, Sir Keir has not made any statement about the ruling. Nor has he commented on Saturday’s vandalism of a suffragist statue by trans activists during a mass rally.
His stance will raise fears that Labour may introduce extra safeguards for trans people that will circumvent the ruling, which found that a woman was defined by biological sex, not gender identity.
The Prime Minister has been accused of flip-flopping on trans rights, saying previously that it was “not right” to say only a woman had a cervix, and that 99.9% of women did not have a penis.
Critics accused him of “cowardice” by refusing to face down Left-wing trans activists within his own party.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, told the Telegraph: “Labour is now badly split, and the Left vote poses a major problem for them. Starmer believes that cowardice will be his salvation. He is wrong.”
Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, asked why Sir Keir was prepared to speak out about last summer’s riots but not about vandalism by trans rights activists.
He said: “Why will Starmer condemn some politically motivated criminality but not others? His silence is telling. No wonder the public call him Two-Tier.”
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.