Keir Starmer refused to concede he was wrong to say ‘trans women are women’ today during bruising clashes at PMQs.
In the first session since the Easter break, the premier was repeatedly challenged by Kemi Badenoch over his shifting views on gender.
She accused him of lacking ‘moral courage’ swiping that he ‘doesn’t have the balls’ to reveal his true opinions in public.
The Tory leader also demanded that Sir Keir apologise for women’s rights campaigner Rosie Duffield being ‘hounded out’ of the Labour Party. Ms Duffield – who now sits as an independent – watched on in the Commons as he ducked the call.
The exchanges came after the PM finally gave a direct response to the Supreme Court ruling last week, confirming that women are defined by their biological sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
It means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if ‘proportionate’.
In contrast to Sir Keir, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has given a clear statement that trans women are ‘by definition not the same as biological women’.
And Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy acknowledged during an interview that she ‘misunderstood the application of the law’ before the ruling.
Kicking off the debate this afternoon, Ms Badenoch said: ‘Does the Prime Minister now accept that when he said that it was the law that trans women were women, he was wrong?’
Sir Keir replied: ‘Let me be clear, I welcome the Supreme Court ruling on this issue. It brings clarity and it will give confidence to women and, of course, to service providers.
In 2022, Keir Starmer insisted that ‘trans women are women’ and that it was wrong to say ‘only women have a cervix’.
In a newspaper interview in April 2023, he faced a backlash after claiming that 99.9 per cent of women do not have a penis – implying that one in a thousand women do.
Later that year, following a backlash, he said he agreed with Tony Blair that men have a penis and women a vagina.
He also told BBC Radio 5 Live in 2023: ‘Firstly, a woman is an adult female, so let’s clear that one up.’
In April 2024 Sir Keir said Rosie Duffield – then one of his Labour MPs – was right to say ‘only women have a cervix’.
He told ITV: ‘Biologically, she of course is right about that.’
On policy, the Labour leader said in 2023 he disagreed with doomed proposals in Scotland that would have allowed 16 and 17-year-olds to apply for a gender recognition certificate.
‘The Equality and Human Rights Commission will now issue updated guidance, and it is important that that happens and that all service providers then act accordingly.
‘This Government’s approach, and my approach, has been as follows: to support and implement the Supreme Court ruling, and we will, to continue to protect single-sex spaces based on biological sex, and we will, but also to ensure that trans people are treated with respect, and we will, and to ensure that everybody is given dignity in their everyday lives.
‘I do think this is the time now to lower the temperature, to move forward, and to conduct this debate with the care and compassion that it deserves. And I think that should unite the whole House.’
Ms Badenoch shot back that Sir Keir ‘can’t bring himself to admit he was wrong’.
She also told him to apologise to Ms Duffield for the way she was ‘hounded out of Labour Party ‘simply for telling the truth’ about gender.
Ms Badenoch suggested the premier – who was on holiday last week – had ‘hidden’ from responding to the Supreme Court ruling for six days because he was ‘scared’ and did not ‘have the balls’ to tackle the issues.
Sir Keir said that he did not want to turn gender issues into a ‘political football’.
‘I always approach this on the basis that we should treat everyone with dignity and respect, whatever their different views. And I will continue to do so,’ he said.
‘My approach will be to support the ruling, to protect single-sex spaces and treat everybody with dignity and respect, and I believe there’s a consensus in this House and the country for that approach.’
Sir Keir has said the Supreme Court made clear that ‘a woman is an adult female’, marking a shift from his previous views that ‘trans women are women’.
Ms Badenoch said: ‘This is a question about moral courage, about doing the right thing even when it is difficult, and the truth is he doesn’t have the balls. The Prime Minister only tells people what they want to hear, he is a weather vane who twists in the wind.
‘He cheered an ideology that denied safe spaces to women and girls because he thought it was cool to do so. He hounded a brave female MP out of his party for telling the truth he accepts now. And now he is hiding behind the Supreme Court judgment and isn’t that because he doesn’t know what he actually believes?’
Sir Keir replied: ‘I can only assume that sounded better when she did it in the mirror earlier on. The truth is it doesn’t really matter what the Leader of the Opposition says because nobody believes, none of them thinks she’s going to lead them into the next election anyway.’
Asked during an appearance on the BBC’s Politics Live if she stood by her views on trans women, Ms Nandy said: ‘I misunderstood the application of the law like many people. That’s what we’re working through now.’
Pressed that Sir Keir had been wrong in the statements he made previously, Ms Nandy said: ‘He was recognising that when people have been through the gender recognition process and transitioned to a different gender that they can be recognised as that gender.
‘What this ruling says is that the provision of services is based on biology. Now that we’ve got that ruling that has big implications for the way that we provide services.’
Mr Streeting told the Sun that ‘by definition trans women are trans women’.
‘I have always and will always respect people’s identities and I have no trouble whatsoever referring to trans women by their names, referring to them as women as shorthand, or using pronouns like she and her,’ he said.
‘I don’t think that’s an issue and I think the vast majority of people in our country would also want to be respectful in that way.
‘But by definition they’re not the same as biological women.
‘There are important differences and that is particularly important in a health context.’
Earlier, author and women’s rights campaigner JK Rowling said: ‘Imagine being such a coward you can only muster the courage to tell the truth once the Supreme Court has ruled on what the truth is.’
Ms Duffield, who quit Labour last year, said Sir Keir’s U-turn on whether a transgender woman is a woman showed he was a ‘manager rather than a leader’.
She told LBC Radio: ‘It’s just another sign of the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership skills. I’m bound to say that, he’s a manager rather than a leader.
‘He responds and reacts rather than leads from the front, and this is what we’re seeing again from him.’