Starmer says he is ‘really pleased’ supreme court has given ‘much-needed clarity’ on definition of ‘woman’ in equalities law – UK politics live
Starmer says he is ‘really pleased’ supreme court has given ‘much-needed clarity’ on definition of ‘woman’ in equalities law
Keir Starmer has been under pressure for days to comment on the supreme court ruling, particularly from the rightwing papers. Yesterday the Daily Mail even splashed on a story saying he “must break his silence”. His opponents want to embarrass him over the issue because of his past comments supporting more 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:
I welcome the decision of the supreme court, which has given us clarity, much-needed clarity, and I think for those that are now drawing up guidance, it’s a much clearer position.
So I’m really pleased that the court has now clarified the position.
We can move on from there and I think that’s been very helpful, and I would welcome that.
Asked if a trans woman was a woman, Starmer replied:
I think the supreme court has answered that question.
Asked if that meant he did not believe a transwoman is a woman, Starmer said:
A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear.
I actually welcome the judgment because I think it gives real clarity. It allows those that have got to draw up guidance to be really clear about what that guidance should say.
So I think it’s important that we see the judgment for what it is. It’s a welcome step forward.
It’s real clarity in an area where we did need clarity, I’m pleased it’s come about.
We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgment.
Key events
Badenoch has already ‘thrown in towel’ ahead of local elections, Lib Dems claim
The Liberal Democrats have claimed that Kemi Badenoch’s comments in her Today interview this morning (see 11.23am) show she is already admitting defeat in the local elections. Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said:
Kemi Badenoch has already thrown in the towel before a single vote has been counted in next week’s local elections.
The Conservative party doesn’t have any answers on the big issues facing the country, because their fingerprints of failure are all over them.
Badenoch says she’s ‘not a career politician’ as she plays down Tory prospects in local elections
Kemi Badenoch has described herself as an engineer, “not a career politician”, in an interview where she played down the Conservatives’ chances in next week’s local elections.
Speaking to the Today programme, she said that the elections would be “very difficult” for her party because most of the seats were last contested in 2021, when Boris Johnson was particularly popular as the Covid vaccine was being rolled out.
Badenoch said:
These elections are going to be very difficult for the Conservatives. Two-thirds of the seats four years ago we won – there’s no way we are going to be able to do that again.
When Amol Rajan, the presenter, put it to Badenoch that her party was being overtaken by Reform UK because people did not know what the Tories stood for, she said she completely disagreed.
Badenoch went on:
Four years ago people were asking Keir Starmer to resign. He had the worst results ever. He’d been leader for about a year and a half.
I’ve been doing this for five and a half months, and if you look at the time that lots of the previous oppositions have been in – 14 years, 13 years, 18 years – it’s going to take time to fix this.
Asked how the Conservatives would get more people off welfare and into work, Badenoch said she would take her time to make plans and that she would not be “making policy announcements on radio stations”.
She claimed that normal politicians were too willing to rush into decisions.
We’ve had lots of people winning with no plan. We have a Labour government, they won an election, they have no plan.
Asked about a ConservativeHome survey saying 55% of party members think the Tories should be developing new policy more quickly, Badenoch said she would stick to her approach.
I’m not going to be blown off course every time someone has a criticism. That is why things don’t get done properly.
I tell people that I’m not a career politician, I’m an engineer. You build a plan, you explain how it’s going to be done, and then you make sure that you deliver it. That is what I’m doing.
After leaving university in 2003, Badenoch worked as a computer engineer. She became an elected politician in 2015, when she joined the London assembly, and she was elected to parliament in 2017.
Home Office to publish nationalities of foreign criminals in UK
The nationalities of foreign criminals in the UK are due to be published for the first time, under plans to be disclosed by the Home Office. Rajeev Syal has the story.
Starmer says roll-out of breakfast clubs in primary schools in England will be ‘game-changing moment’ for families
Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson wanted 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 the Department for Education’s news release.
School mornings just got easier for families across the country as 750 schools open breakfast clubs today, offering 30 minutes of free childcare, a healthy start for kids and a little more breathing room before the school bell rings.
Parents will be supported with additional time at the start of the day to attend appointments, get to work on time and run errands. In total, this means parents will be able to save up to 95 additional hours and £450 per year if their child attends free breakfast clubs every day.
This amount rises to a saving of up to £8,000 every year when combining the free breakfast clubs with further support through the expansion of government-funded childcare and new school uniform cap on branded items.
In a statement, Starmer said this would be a “game-changing moment” for families.
The rollout of free breakfast clubs is a truly game-changing moment for families in this country. They mean parents will no longer be hamstrung by rigid school hours and have the breathing space they need to beat the morning rush, attend work meetings and doctors’ appointments, or run errands. And crucially, it means better life chances for children.
By making these clubs free and universal, we’re doing something that previous governments have never done. We’re going further and faster to deliver the change working families deserve. That’s the change this government was elected to deliver.
Phillipson urges firms to ensure ‘safe and appropriate’ toilets available for all, including trans people
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 were damaged during the protest in London, and some of the placards waved used extreme or inflammatory language.
Phillipson said:
What we have seen in recent days, where it comes to defacing of statues, some pretty terrible placards that have been displayed in protests around the country, it really is just completely unacceptable.
We need to move to a situation where we can just treat one another with dignity and respect, that, yes, we maintain single-sex spaces for women, absolutely, the ruling is clear, but trans people too have a right to live their lives free of harassment, free of discrimination.
I think that’s a pretty commonsense view that is held by the majority of the British people.
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. (See 9.55am.) She said:
We don’t routinely police toilets and it’s for businesses, including pubs, to decide how they run their premises.
But I would hope that that business would make sure that there is a safe and appropriate place for all people to use, including trans people, who do deserve dignity and respect, let’s be clear.
Starmer says he is ‘really pleased’ supreme court has given ‘much-needed clarity’ on definition of ‘woman’ in equalities law
Keir Starmer has been under pressure for days to comment on the supreme court ruling, particularly from the rightwing papers. Yesterday the Daily Mail even splashed on a story saying he “must break his silence”. His opponents want to embarrass him over the issue because of his past comments supporting more 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:
I welcome the decision of the supreme court, which has given us clarity, much-needed clarity, and I think for those that are now drawing up guidance, it’s a much clearer position.
So I’m really pleased that the court has now clarified the position.
We can move on from there and I think that’s been very helpful, and I would welcome that.
Asked if a trans woman was a woman, Starmer replied:
I think the supreme court has answered that question.
Asked if that meant he did not believe a transwoman is a woman, Starmer said:
A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear.
I actually welcome the judgment because I think it gives real clarity. It allows those that have got to draw up guidance to be really clear about what that guidance should say.
So I think it’s important that we see the judgment for what it is. It’s a welcome step forward.
It’s real clarity in an area where we did need clarity, I’m pleased it’s come about.
We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgment.
Supreme court ruling means trans women should use male toilets, says equalities minister Bridget Phillipson
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’s supreme court ruling saying 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 Hodge said the decison should not 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 week Karin 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 was squirming as she dodged the question.
But today Bridget 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:
That should be on the basis of biological sex. That would apply right across the board to all single sex provision.
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.
I know that many businesses, large and small, will ensure that they have appropriate provision in place. For example, many businesses have moved towards unisex provision or separate cubicles that can be used by anyone.
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, after Kishwer 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 what a policy document from the Metropolitan police was saying on this topic only three years ago.
If someone (whether binary or non-binary) presents as, say, female then they use the female toilet and vice versa. There is no law or policy prohibiting anyone from using whichever toilet matches their gender identity, and a trans* individual cannot be ordered to use a toilet that they feel uncomfortable using. A trans* person does not need to “prove” their right to use the toilet in anyway, including producing a Gender Recognition Certificate.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer visits 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.
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