Keir Starmer completed a humiliating U-turn on gender today as he finally welcomed ‘clarity’ from a landmark ruling.
The PM hailed a ‘step forward’ by the Supreme Court as he faced questions on a post-Easter visit to promote the Government’s pilot scheme for free breakfast clubs in schools.
Asked whether he still believed a trans woman is a woman, Sir Keir said a ‘woman is an adult female’.
He told the BBC: ‘I welcome the decision of the Supreme Court, which has given us clarity, much-needed clarity, and I think for those that are now drawing up guidance, it’s a much clearer position.
‘So I’m really pleased that the court has now clarified the position. We can move on from there and I think that’s been very helpful, and I would welcome that.’
Downing Street later confirmed the PM’s U-turn from his earlier position and that he no longer believes a transgender woman is a woman.
His official spokesman said: ‘The Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman.’
Sir Keir’s comments sparked an angry response from Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has frequently clashed with the PM on gender issues.
‘Imagine being such a coward you can only muster the courage to tell the truth once the Supreme Court has ruled on what the truth is,’ she posted on X/Twitter this afternoon.
Pressure had been mounting for Sir Keir to give a direct response, nearly a week after the Supreme Court decided that a woman is defined by biological sex.
The PM hailed a ‘step forward’ by the Supreme Court as he faced questions on a post-Easter visit to promote the Government’s pilot scheme for free breakfast clubs in schools
Sir Keir Starmer’s U-turn sparked an angry response from Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has frequently clashed with the PM on gender issues
Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson said this morning that the Government was ‘crystal clear’ that it ‘welcomes’ the ruling. She said trans women should use male toilets.
However, some Labour ministers have privately suggested they could resist the implications of the ruling.
In WhatsApp messages uncovered by The Mail on Sunday, culture minister Sir Chris Bryant agreed with an MP criticising equality watchdog chief Baroness Falkner after she said the ruling meant trans women could not use women’s toilets or compete in women’s sports.
Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle added: ‘We need to organise.’
Downing Street has said it will take no disciplinary action against the ministers, saying they were not trying to undermine the ruling.
In a statement to Parliament this afternoon, Ms Phillipson said the Government will protect women-only spaces and offer trans people the dignity they were ‘denied’ by the Conservatives.
She pledged to ‘end the practice of mixed-sex wards once and for all’, telling the House of Commons the use of mixed wards in hospitals had risen by more than 2,200 per cent in 10 years under the Tories.
‘In our prisons, in our hospitals, in sport, in a whole host of other spaces, what was true before the ruling remains true after the ruling, this Government protects safe spaces for women under the Equality Act 2010.’
She added: ‘This Government will offer trans people the dignity that too often they were denied by the party opposite, too often a convenient punch bag, too often the butt of jokes made… in this place by the party opposite.’
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, responding to Ms Phillipson’s statement, branded the Cabinet minister’s words ‘mostly a shameless work of fiction’.
‘In 2021, the PM said it is not right to say only women have a cervix,’ she said.
‘In 2022, he said it is the law that trans women are women. In 2023 he said – and I quote – 99 per cent of women don’t have a penis.
‘I know what a woman is and I always have. The people of this country know what a woman is.
‘We didn’t need the Supreme Court to tell us that, but this Government did – a Labour Government so desperate to jump on a bandwagon that they abandoned common sense along with the SNP, who put rapists in women’s prisons, and, of course, the Liberal Democrats.’
In a statement to Parliament, equalities minister Bridget Phillipson said the Government will protect women-only spaces and offer trans people the dignity they were ‘denied’ by the Tories
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, responding to Ms Phillipson’s statement, branded the Cabinet minister’s words ‘mostly a shameless work of fiction’.
Labour backbencher Nadia Whittome said she was ‘deeply concerned’ about Ms Phillipson’s view that ‘trans people should use a toilet that many of them would not feel comfortable or safe in’.
Ms Phillipson replied: ‘The Supreme Court’s judgement was clear on biological sex.
‘But I do understand and recognise the need to ensure that there is provision, including toilet facilities and other provision in place for everyone within our society.
‘That is why many businesses, many service providers, also provide unisex provision.
‘And why many service providers will also put in place enclosed bathrooms that do not require people to make that decision. To ensure their dignity and privcacy is protected.’
Senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier asked if a trans woman now has to use men’s toilets because of the Supreme Court’s ruling, 50 years after they had transitioned.
She said: ‘I have a constituent who transitioned in the 1970s, she’s used female toilets now for more of her life than she ever did any other toilets.
‘Are we saying that her dignity, and her respect that (Ms Phillipson) has talked about, is going to be in any way improved if there is any ban on her using the toilets that she’s been using for so many years?’
Ms Phillipson said the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be setting out a code of practice.
She added: ‘They will make sure that businesses and others ensure that there is dignity and respect for all, that there is appropriate provision, including the use of toilet facilities, so that no-one, including trans people, must feel unsafe when they use public toilets.’
Fellow Labour MP Dawn Butler asked if people will need to prove their birth sex.
‘I don’t know if anyone else in the House has butch lesbian friends, and have been with them when they’ve been told to get out of women’s toilets, but I have,’ she told MPs. ‘And it is not pleasant and it is not nice.’
Ms Phillipson said: ‘Lesbians should not be treated in a discriminatory way and we must ensure that there are toilets and facilities available for everyone within our country.’
Liberal Democrat equalities spokeswoman Christine Jardine warned trans women may face ‘aggression’ as a result of being ‘forced into men’s toilets’.
On Sunday night, Mrs Badenoch took to the X social media site to highlight images of protest placards with messages such as ‘kill JK Rowling’
The Harry Potter author said it was ‘astounding’ that Ms Badenoch was the only UK political leader offering vocal backing
Speaking to local media this morning, Sir Keir was asked to repeat his previous statement that ‘transwomen are women’.
Instead he replied: ‘I think the Supreme Court has answered that question.’
Asked if that means he does not believe a transwoman is a woman, he told ITV West Country: ‘A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear.
‘I actually welcome the judgment because I think it gives real clarity. It allows those that have got to draw up guidance to be really clear about what that guidance should say.
‘So I think it’s important that we see the judgment for what it is. It’s a welcome step forward.
‘It’s real clarity in an area where we did need clarity, I’m pleased it’s come about.
‘We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgment.’
Pressed afterwards whether Sir Keir still believed that a transgender woman was a woman, the PM’s official spokesman said: ‘No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman.
‘That is set out clearly by the court judgment.’
In March 2022, before entering No10, Sir Keir told The Times that ‘a woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view — that is actually the law’.
Ms Phillipson told BBC Breakfast: ‘I do welcome the clarity that the Supreme Court judgment has brought in this area, making clear that biological sex is the basis on which single-sex spaces are provided.’
She said there would be more guidance for schools on gender-questioning children and ‘the heart of everything we do has to be about making sure that children’s wellbeing is supported, but also that school leaders in particular have the clarity and guidance that they want’.
Ms Phillipson added: ‘We recognise and believe in the importance of single-sex spaces.
‘Before I was a Member of Parliament I used to run a women’s refuge, so I know more than most how essential it is that women, particularly those who’ve experienced sexual violence and male abuse, are able to have safe, therapeutic environments, and that’s why there has always been protection there within the law for single-sex spaces.
‘There has been some confusion. I’m glad that’s been cleared up, because providers can now operate with absolute confidence in delivering single-sex spaces for biological women.’
Ms Phillipson said trans women should use male toilets, but suggested that businesses should ensure ‘they have appropriate provision in place’, which could mean unisex facilities.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the Supreme Court ruling was clear that ‘services should be accessed on the basis of biological sex’.
‘But I know that many businesses, large and small, will ensure that they have appropriate provision in place,’ she said.
‘For example, many businesses have moved towards unisex provision or separate cubicles that can be used by anyone.’
She added: ‘There are important questions around, for example, the use of toilets, around the use of changing facilities, but there are also profound questions that I think are even more important about, for example, hospital provision, rape crisis centres, women’s refuges, where you are talking about people often being in that provision on an accommodation basis for an extended period of time.
‘And I think it is important and welcome that the Supreme Court have put beyond doubt that providers can make sure that is done on the basis of biological sex.’
Ms Phillipson also dismissed the claims of Labour splits, saying: ‘I speak for the Government on this matter and I can be crystal clear with you that we welcome the ruling.
‘We will make sure that the EHRC work with us to bring forward guidance to address those areas where, through both the guidance and the statutory code of practice, providers have further clarity that is needed.’
The Cabinet minister condemned the ‘completely unacceptable’ scenes at protests following the Supreme Court ruling.
Seven statues around Parliament Square in Westminster were daubed with graffiti during a trans rights protest on Saturday.
Ms Phillipson said: ‘What we have seen in recent days, where it comes to defacing of statues, some pretty terrible placards that have been displayed in protests around the country, it really is just completely unacceptable.
‘We need to move to a situation where we can just treat one another with dignity and respect, that, yes, we maintain single-sex spaces for women, absolutely, the ruling is clear, but trans people too have a right to live their lives free of harassment, free of discrimination.
‘I think that’s a pretty commonsense view that is held by the majority of the British people.’
Mrs Badenoch welcomed the Supreme Court judgment and condemned weekend protests.
Commenting on placards carrying death threats against author and campaigner Rowling, the Tory leader said: ‘A mob of trans-activists waving death threats at women isn’t protest – it’s criminal incitement.
‘If the law isn’t enforced, we don’t have equality, we have twotier justice. It’s time for Labour to stop being on the side of these extremists.’
Rowling, a former Labour donor, wrote on X: ‘It continues to astound that Kemi Badenoch remains the only UK political leader offering unequivocal solidarity to women.’
