Following the Supreme Court’s gender ruling, leaked Labour documents have revealed the party’s plans to postpone its women’s conference and restrict positive action provisions to “biological women”. LGBT groups within the party have condemned these documents as a “blatant attack” and an “attempt to isolate” transgender people.
Confidential advice sent to members of the National Executive Committee (NEC), the party’s governing body including leader Keir Starmer and chair Ellie Reeves, was leaked online and widely shared on social media ahead of a vote on Tuesday, 20 May. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this vote.
The papers lay out two options for how the NEC should vote, with the committee urged to postpone the women’s conference and vote in favour of interpreting Labour party rules and procedures as “on the basis of biological sex at birth”.
In April, the UK Supreme Court ruled in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. The case concerned the definition and application of the protected characteristic of ‘sex’ under the 2010 Equality Act. The court’s justices determined that the definition is a ‘biological’ one, despite the word ‘biology’ not appearing in the Equality Act. They also explicitly stated that it excludes transgender people.
The decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for the transgender community, organisations, public bodies, and services. These entities may be compelled to update their policies regarding single-sex spaces, inclusion, and discrimination. Some notable examples include the Football Association, England and Wales Cricket Board, Barclays Bank, and the Scottish Parliament, which have already taken steps to prohibit transgender women from accessing female spaces.
In the wake of the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) – the UK’s equalities watchdog –issued interim guidance stating trans people should be banned from using single-sex facilities which match their gender and, in some cases, should also be barred from using those which match their ‘biological sex’.
This further demonstrates that the current irritation of the Labour Party has shifted far to the right of what its founders, the trade unions, established the party to represent.
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