Sharron Davies launches furious tirade on Bridget Phillipson over failure to implement Supreme Court ruling: 'Utter disgrace!'

Georgia Pearce
Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:42:22 +0000

Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies has launched a scathing attack on Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, accusing her of failing to act on the Supreme Court's landmark ruling regarding women's rights.

Speaking to GB News, Ms Davies expressed her frustration that 12 months have passed since the court's decision, which confirmed that the Equality Act was founded on biological sex rather than gender identity.

"Bridget Phillipson has been an utter disgrace," she declared, condemning the minister for allowing guidance to languish on her desk without action.

The ruling, delivered a year ago, did not establish new legislation but instead clarified the existing legal framework.

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Ms Davies voiced her profound disappointment at the Government's continued inaction, noting that ministers repeatedly promise to implement the law yet fail to follow through.

"We constantly get told that they are going to implement the law and you'd like to think, when we have a Prime Minister who's supposed to be a lawyer, that he would actually really value the law.

"But it seems as if he only seems to value international law, not British law," she said.

The former athlete expressed particular dismay given Sir Keir Starmer's legal background, suggesting his professional experience should have made him a champion of domestic legislation.

Ms Davies recounted how women found their rights stripped away without any consultation or opportunity to provide input on the changes affecting them.

"We would turn around and all of a sudden we've got men in our sports and we've got men in our changing rooms, and we just had no say about it, and any woman that came out and spoke was ostracised and canceled, and their life was made absolutely hell," she explained.

The Olympian emphasised that prior to the Supreme Court's intervention, what had been treated as law was effectively "Stonewall law" rather than genuine UK legislation.

The court's ruling simply reaffirmed what the legal position had always been.

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Ms Davies condemned the Education Secretary for allowing the guidance to remain untouched for an extended period, despite Ms Phillipson herself acknowledging that the law is already in place.

"She herself has said the law is in place and it doesn't change the law, so get the guidance out, and she's come up with ridiculous excuses," she stated.

The former swimmer dismissed justifications centred on risk assessments and cost evaluations as inadequate, pointing out that no such assessments were conducted when policies were initially changed.

"Stupid excuses constantly, and now they can't put it on the table because we've got an election coming up," she added, accusing the government of perpetually delaying action.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's updated guidance was sent directly to Ms Phillipson, placing responsibility for its release squarely with her department.

The current EHRC chair, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, confirmed that her organisation had revised portions of the guidance following ministerial feedback and returned an amended draft to Ms Phillipson in April.

Ms Phillipson has said of the guidance: "The code will apply across Great Britain and, as we are currently in the pre-election period for the devolved administrations, we are unable to make further announcements on this matter at this time."

The Education Secretary insisted the Government was pursuing "urgent action" to meet its goal of presenting the code to Parliament in May, pledging to do so "as soon as practicable after the election period".