Following JK Rowling’s rather scathing attack on Sir Keir’s Labour party on Sunday, some in Starmer’s army have been grovelling for the author’s support since. But Rowling isn’t prepared to let them off the hook that easily…
After Rowling slammed Starmer’s lot for the party’s ‘dismissive and often offensive’ approach to concerns of gender-critical feminists, Rachel Reeves got in touch. The Shadow Chancellor offered up an olive branch to Rowling, telling the renowned writer that she would meet with her to provide ‘assurances’ over the protection of women-only spaces. In response, the Harry Potter author retorted:
I’ll be happy to meet after Keep Prisons Single Sex, Lesbian Labour, Women’s Rights Network, Woman’s Place and the LGB Alliance have been given in-person meetings with the Labour leadership.
Ouch. Turning her guns on Labour’s deputy leader, the author went on:
I’d also like to know whether Angela Rayner still considers the last two organisations hate groups – asking on behalf of female survivors of domestic violence and gay people who don’t subscribe to gender identity ideology.
Rowling’s remarks point to Angela Rayner’s support of a charter in 2020 that labelled two women-only organisations – Woman’s Place UK and LGB Alliance – ‘trans-exclusionist hate groups’. Yet despite the findings of the Cass review, published in April, Rayner still hasn’t apologised for her previous comments and Rowling remains rather unimpressed.
All this comes after Sir Keir himself refused to lend his support to Labour candidate Rosie Duffield on last Thursday’s BBC Question Time special. After previously slamming Duffield in 2021 for saying only women have cervixes, Starmer U-turned on the gender debate earlier this year – and reiterated his change of stance on the Beeb last week. However it was not Duffield he referenced but, um, Tony Blair. It prompted his Labour colleague to take to Twitter and fume that ‘from now on, I shall be submitting my every comment and thought (particularly those mainstream views which most people agree with) to the former Labour Prime Minister so that it may officially be de-toxified…’ – and spurred Rowling’s weekend read on how the party has lost itself on the trans debate.
Will the Labour party ever work out where it stands on this issue? Don’t hold your breath…
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