Keir Starmerhas been under pressure for days to comment on the supreme court ruling, particularly from the rightwing papers. Yesterday the Daily Mail evensplashedona storysaying he “must break his silence”. His opponents want to embarrass him over the issue because of his past comments supportingmore rights for trans people, including one interview when he said it was“not right”to say only women have a cervix.
This morning, in interviews during a school visit in Bath, Starmer said he was “really pleased” the supreme court had clarified the law on the definition of a woman. He told the BBC:
Asked if a trans woman was a woman, Starmer replied:
Asked if that meant he did not believe a transwoman is a woman, Starmer said:
The nationalities of foreign criminals in the UK are due to be published for the first time, under plans to be disclosed by theHome Office.Rajeev Syalhas the story.
Keir StarmerandBridget Phillipsonwanted to be talking mostly this morning about school breakfast clubs. As pupils return to school after the Easter holidays, the government is starting to roll out its policy of having breakfast clubs in primary schools in England.
Here is an extract from theDepartment for Education’snews release.
In a statement, Starmer said this would be a “game-changing moment” for families.
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain,Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and minister for women and equalities, criticised the behaviour of some of the activists who demonstrated against the supreme court’s trans ruling at the weekend.
Some statues weredamaged during the protestin London, and some of theplacards wavedused extreme or inflammatory language.
Phillipson said:
In the GMB interview, Phillipson was also asked what toilet a trans woman should use in a pub. Her reply was not as direct as it was in her earlier interview on the Today programme. (See9.55am.) She said:
Keir Starmerhas been under pressure for days to comment on the supreme court ruling, particularly from the rightwing papers. Yesterday the Daily Mail evensplashedona storysaying he “must break his silence”. His opponents want to embarrass him over the issue because of his past comments supportingmore rights for trans people, including one interview when he said it was“not right”to say only women have a cervix.
This morning, in interviews during a school visit in Bath, Starmer said he was “really pleased” the supreme court had clarified the law on the definition of a woman. He told the BBC:
Asked if a trans woman was a woman, Starmer replied:
Asked if that meant he did not believe a transwoman is a woman, Starmer said:
Good morning. The Easter recess is over, parliament is back today, and one consequence is that ministers can no longer avoid awkward questions about the implications of last week’ssupreme court rulingsaying that, when the Equality Act refers to women, it just means biological women and does not include trans women, even with a gender recognition certificate.
Delivering the ruling,Lord Hodgesaid the decison shouldnot be seen as a “triumph”for one side in the debate about trans rights at the expense of another. That turned out to be wishful thinking, because gender critical ferminists, and their supporters in the media, have been treating this as a decisive victory. For most Labour ministers, the case was an uncomfortable reminder of an issue they would rather not talk about because they have pulled back considerably from the ‘trans women are women’ very pro-trans positions they (and some Conservatives too) were adopting only a few years ago.
The “gotcha” question for Labour ministers on trans issues from a hostile media used to be ‘can a woman have a penis?’. After last week’s judgment, it became, ‘what toilet should a trans person use?’ In interviews last weekKarin Smyth, a health minister,ducked the question. The Daily Mail, a paper that in normal circumstances would be the first to denounce nanny state ministers passing laws telling people what toilets to use, said Smyth wassquirmingas she dodged the question.
But todayBridget Phillipson, who is minister for women and equalities as well as being education secretary, told the Today programme that a trans woman should use the men’s toilets. Asked which toilet trans people should use, she replied:
But she also said the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) would be setting out guidance on this issue. And she said firms should consider having unisex provision in place.
Currently many, or most, trans people do use toilets corresponding to their gender, not their biological sex, and they point out that normally this happens without anyone objecting, or even noticing. Last week, afterKishwer Falkner, chair of the EHRC, gave an interview also saying the supreme court ruling meant trans women should have to use male toilets, trans activists accused her of overreach.
Telling trans women to use male toilets would make a big change for some people. This is whata policy documentfrom theMetropolitan policewas saying on this topic only three years ago.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning:Keir Starmervisits a military training base with Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand PM, as tney discuss a joint initiative to train Ukrainian solidiers. Starmer is due to give media interviews.
11.30am:Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2pm: The IMF publishes its latest world economic outlook, including revised growth forecasts for the UK.
2.30pm:Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: A minister is expected to make a Commons statement about last week’s supreme court judgment about the definition of woman in the Equality Act, and about policy relating to trans people.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian hasgiven up posting from its official accounts on Xbut individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.