Keir Starmer has welcomed the Supreme Court ruling that the protected characteristic of “sex” within the 2010 Equality Act is defined by biology.
The UK Supreme Court issued an 88-page judgement last Wednesday (16 April), in which it ruled that the legal definition of a woman excludes transgender women.
“The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex,” Lord Patrick Hodge said, at the end of the landmark case.
Trans people still have protection against discrimination under the law, and the judges “counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another – it is not”, the judge added.
However, the ruling is likely to have wide-ranging implications for trans and non-binary people and how public bodies and organisations operate in relation to issues such as inclusion and single-sex spaces.
British Transport Police have already implemented an interim policy which means trans women suspects can be strip-searched by male officers, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned that the NHS will be “pursued” if policies on single-sex spaces are not changed to reflect the court’s decision.
While the full impacts of the ruling, and how it will affect the day-to-day lives of trans men and women, will only emerge in the coming days and months, the prime minister has now said he was “really pleased” that the judgement had given “much-needed clarity” about the definition of sex.
“I welcome the decision of the Supreme Court, which has given us much-needed clarity, and I think for those now drawing up guidance, it’s a much clearer position,” he told the BBC. “I’m really pleased the court has clarified the position. We can move on from there and that’s very helpful. I welcome that.”
Starmer went on to say that “a woman is an adult female”, and asked by ITV West Country if he believed trans women are women, he replied: “I think the Supreme Court has answered that question.
“A woman is an adult female, the court has made that absolutely clear. It’s important that we see the judgement for what it is: a welcome step forward. We need to move [on] and ensure all guidance is in the right place according to that judgement.”
The PM has flip-flopped on trans issues in recent times. In 2020, Labour was committed to introducing self-ID for trans people but by 2023 the party – under Starmer – had shifted to a version of Gender Recognition Act reform that kept a “medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria”.
Starmer’s latest comments come after equalities minister Bridget Phillipson told transgender to use male toilets and facilities, in the wake of the ruling.
Asked by the BBC’s Today programme which facilities trans people should use, Phillipson said that “would be on the basis of biological sex, that would apply right across the board to all single-sex provision”.
She went on to say: “I welcome the clarity the Supreme Court judgement has brought, making clear that biological sex is the basis on which single-sex spaces are provided.” Having run a women’s refuge before entering parliament, shwas “glad that’s been cleared up” because “providers can now operate with absolute confidence in delivering single-sex spaces for biological women”.
This differs somewhat from her stance last June. When asked a similar question, she would only say “common sense solutions” were needed and people had to be “practical”.
The Supreme Court case was brought against the Scottish government by gender-critical For Women Scotland, following a lower court’s finding that sex was not limited to biology.
The group, supported author JK Rowling, asked the judges to consider whether “a person with a full Gender Recognition Certificate, which recognises that their gender is female, was a ‘woman’ for the 2010 Equality Act”.
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