The ink had barely dried on the Supreme Court justices’ unanimous judgment on Wednesday – confirming that ‘woman’ in the Equality Act refers to biological sex – before Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot were out there touting their long-term advocacy of that very position. Education Secretary Bridge Phillipson even claimed in response to the ruling that: ‘We have always supported the protection of single sex spaces based on biological sex.’ But if Mr S’s memory serves correctly, that isn’t an entirely accurate reflection of history. How times change…
After all it was Phillipson herself who, when asked on Times Radio last June which bathroom a transwoman should use, replied: ‘You don’t police how people use toilets in that sense’. She went on to say that someone who had a gender recognition certificate was ‘for legal purposes, regarded as being in a different gender’ and concluded that: ‘I would think that in those cases people would be using female toilets’.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in