Andy Burnham faced a backlash last night over his views on single-sex spaces.
Biological males who identify as female should be allowed to use women’s toilets, the Labour leadership hopeful told a meeting, in comments unearthed by the Daily Mail.
And the Greater Manchester mayor said the idea that single-sex spaces should be protected for biological women was a ‘minority view’, angering campaigners who took the issue to the UK’s highest court – and won.
Mr Burnham dismissed those activists as ‘supposed feminists’ trying to start ‘culture wars’ by demanding protection for such environments.
The row threatens to revive Labour’s ‘woman problem’, which dogged Keir Starmer and other leading figures for years as they struggled to even define what a woman is.
Tory equalities spokesman Claire Coutinho said Mr Burnham was ‘shockingly out of touch’.
She told the Mail: ‘Protecting the safety, dignity and privacy of women is not a minority view – it’s the law. It is a gross injustice that women have been raped in prison, lost their spots on sports podiums, or lost their jobs for stating biological sex is real.
‘But that has happened because people like Andy did not think women’s rights were worth fighting for – it is shockingly out of touch.’
Andy Burnham displays his support for the LGBT community at last year’s Manchester Pride Parade
The Manchester mayor has signalled he will mount a leadership bid if he wins the Makerfield by-election
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The revelation could also lead to questions on the doorstep in Makerfield, where Mr Burnham is seeking to win a by-election next month as a stepping stone to challenging Sir Keir for the keys to No 10.
One Whitehall source said: ‘I think Andy may find that the idea that men should stay out of the women’s toilets is not a minority view in Makerfield.’
Mr Burnham’s comments came at a 2022 meeting with Manchester’s ‘youth combined authority’, leaked footage of which has been obtained by the Mail.
He was asked whether men who self-identify as women should be allowed to use women’s toilets.
He replied: ‘Clearly there is a group of people who do feel that toilets should be a safe space only for women and there should not be anyone biologically a male allowed in that space.
‘I don’t think that’s a majority view. I think it’s a minority view and quite a small minority view, actually. But it is a view so you can’t completely ignore it. Possibly they might be women who have experienced male violence at some point in their life. I don’t know, that’s one way of looking at it.’
He added: ‘The idea that people are falsely portraying their gender in a different way just because they want to abuse a women’s space or encroach on women’s safety… maybe it happens but you are talking a tiny, tiny, tiny number of people.
‘So why are we allowing everyone to get into this really polarised and terribly hateful debate about these issues?
‘I am going to make it really plain: I support trans rights and I want that to be known.’
The comments are the clearest statement of his views on the issue. However, they do not appear to have changed significantly in the intervening period.
Last year he was critical of interim guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission following a landmark Supreme Court ruling which found that single-sex spaces should be reserved for people of that biological sex.
At the time, he said the guidance would make the issue ‘more confusing in the real world’.
At the 2022 meeting, he suggested that even raising the issue was an attempt to start a ‘culture war’. A source present said the individual asking the question was reprimanded by officials for bringing up the matter.
Mr Burnham said: ‘What I observe around this issue is that when people say, what is a woman, define a woman? They are almost trying to ‘other’ people who have, say, gender dysphoria – trying to create gaps between people, drive wedges and make people feel antagonistic towards people.
‘I want to say this loud and clear – don’t start culture wars in Greater Manchester because we are not interested in it.
‘I don’t want to see people standing up for trans rights and people supposedly standing up for women’s rights arguing on the streets of Manchester. That’s not what we’re about.’
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, said Mr Burnham’s comments ‘reveal a lack of understanding’.
She added: ‘Any politician who aspires to be prime minister needs to have a better grasp of what voters want than to think that fringe trans activist views are mainstream.
‘All the polling shows most people want single-sex provision, and don’t think that men who identify as women should be allowed into women-only spaces.
‘This holds across the board, from everyday spaces like toilets and changing rooms to women’s sport and specialist services like rape crisis centres. The majority of women who regard single-sex provision as essential for privacy, dignity and safety shouldn’t have to explain why trans-identifying men need to keep out.
‘It’s not because they’re seeking to “abuse a women’s space or encroach on women’s safety” – it’s because they’re men, simple as that.
‘Dismissing this debate as ‘polarised’ and ‘hateful’ is a cheap rhetorical move.
‘Women asserting our boundaries aren’t hateful. No matter how carefully and kindly we explain our own needs, we’re subjected to a torrent of misogynistic threats. This isn’t a matter of “both sides”.’
Mr Burnham is bidding to win the by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency of Makerfield, which was vacated by scandal-hit minister Josh Simons last week. He has made little secret of the fact he then plans to challenge Sir Keir for the Labour leadership.
In a speech on Monday, he said: ‘A vote for me will be a vote to change Labour. Because Labour needs to change if we are to regain people’s trust.’
Mr Burnham has already been branded the ‘King of the U-turns’ after saying this week that he is no longer pushing for Britain to go back into the EU, just months after declaring: ‘I want to rejoin‘.
Hours later, he performed a second volte-face when he committed to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules, having previously said Britain should not be ‘in hock to the bond markets’. Mr Burnham was contacted for comment.
