by Thorny issue » Sun Apr 02, 2023 1:43 pm
“Keir Starmer: Trans rights can’t override women’s rights
‘For 99.9 per cent of women, it is completely biological . . . and of course they haven’t got a penis,’ says Labour leader.
April 1 2023, The Sunday Times
Sir Keir Starmer knows he has a “women problem” — or at least the perception of one.
The Labour leader has been accused by some within his party of being captured by a vocal minority over his stance on the thorny issue of biological sex and transgender rights.
Now, after seeing the political turmoil that engulfed Nicola Sturgeon’s final days as Scottish first minister, Starmer is keen to clarify both his personal and his party’s position on the subject.
Speaking about Sturgeon’s gender recognition bill, which proposed self-identification for those wishing to change their legal gender, Starmer says: “The lesson from Scotland is that if you can’t take the public with you on a journey of reform, then you’re probably not on the right journey. And that’s why I think that collectively there ought to be a reset in Scotland.”
It sounds like a marked change of tone from the Labour leader, whose party prevaricated over the issue only weeks ago by first whipping its MSPs to vote for the gender bill in Holyrood, then asking MPs in Westminster to abstain when the government exercised its veto over the legislation.
However, Labour’s troubles don’t end there. For months Starmer and his shadow cabinet have tied themselves in knots attempting to answer what appears to be a rather basic question: can a woman have a penis? Starmer’s failure to articulate a simple position has put him on a collision course with feminist groups and his own MP Rosie Duffield, who has claimed that the party has a “women problem”. In their view this represents a lessening of the importance of biological sex in the debate and opens up issues around safeguarding in single-sex spaces.
Duffield, who represents Canterbury, remains on the warpath; today, after Starmer visited Kent as part of the local election campaign, she tweeted: “What a shame he didn’t see fit to tell his only Kent MP about his first visit to our county.”
Kier needs to know that the whole country is being held to ransom by a vocal minority, it’s not just a few in his party, and the majority really do need to be listened to, for the sake of common sense and female safety.