A growing number of Labour MPs have voiced their frustrations with the Supreme Court three months after judges ruled that transgender women are not legally women.
Britain’s highest court found that sex in equality law refers only to biological sex, making a clear distinction between women and transgender women.
Sir Keir Starmer, who had previously said that “99.9 per cent of women don’t have a penis”, hailed the judgement for providing “clarity” that “a woman is an adult female”.
However, Work & Pensions Minister Andrew Western told one of his constituents that he felt the case was “completely unnecessary” and he appreciated “the fear and distress that has resulted” from it.
Cannock Chase MP Josh Newbury added that it was “clear” to him “that trans women are women and that trans men are men”.
He also said: “I do not believe it is morally right for trans people to be excluded from single-sex spaces designated for their gender.”
Meanwhile, St Austell & Newquay MP Noah Law revealed that he worried that the judgement would “serve as a backslide”.
Calvin Bailey, who was elected as the MP for Leyton & Wanstead last July, separately warned: “These impacts will be all the worse if the public debate becomes even more toxic and bigots feel empowered by a false belief that the law is now on their side.”
LATEST LABOUR STORIES:
Pro-trans protesters gather outside the Supreme Court
|PA
Milton Keynes Central MP Emily Darlington even warned that the discourse around trans rights has been exploited by the "far-right" to sow division.
She said: “The UK is increasingly at odds with European peer countries on trans rights, and anti-trans rhetoric is gaining influence in public and policy spheres.”
Ex-Transport Secretary Louise Haigh added that the Equality Act had previously “rightly been interpreted as inclusive of trans people, including trans women, except in specific and proportionate circumstances”.
Haigh also warned that there were some settings where it was right to have space reserved for biological women.
Andrew Western and Louise Haigh
|PA
Conversations surrounding gender identity have proved particularly problematic for Starmer’s Labour Party, with Rosie Duffield opting to sit as an independent following her concerns about women’s rights.
A similar spat threatened to tear Labour apart after the Trans Rights Alliance put forward Step Richards, a transgender woman in possession of a gender recognition certificate, as a candidate for its women’s officer post.
However, the Supreme Court ruling sparked the biggest rift in Labour’s rank.
A WhatsApp groupchat, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, appeared to show Labour Ministers plotting to defy the landmark ruling.
The announcement comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the term 'woman' in the Equality Act was defined by biological sex | GettyResponding to the latest revelations about Labour MPs condemning the ruling, the Labour Women’s Declaration, a group which backs sex-based rights, warned the comments were “both disappointing and deeply concerning”.
A spokeswoman for the group said: “Of particular concern are the number of MPs and peers who are openly saying that the rights of trans people are under threat.
“This not only calls into question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court judgement which explicitly states the ruling ‘does not remove protection from trans people’, it actively fuels fear within the very community they claim to support.”
She added: “We now call upon the government to maintain their resolve and remind outlier Labour MPs, who seek to push their own agenda, of their duty to uphold the law.”
Keir Starmer | GETTY Maya Forstater, chief executive of the charity Sex Matters, also said that leadership was needed so that MPs understood the law.
She said: “Every Government has backbench rebels.
"But when they make dismissive and factually incorrect statements that run directly counter to the Government’s stated position, it’s a failure of leadership to let them stand.”
Labour rebels have already forced the Prime Minister to water down his proposed cuts to welfare and threaten to heap more pressure on Starmer over his migration plan.