While members of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party have long struggled with the concept of biological sex, his voter base appears more confident on the subject. YouGov polling reveals that half of those who backed Starmer’s army in last year’s July election agree with the Supreme Court ruling that saw judges unanimously agree that ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refers to biological sex. In fact, two-thirds of British voters are in favour of the judgment, according to data collected between 8-9 May, in a revelation that may compel the UK government to be a little more decisive on the issue.
A survey of 2,106 British adults for Sex Matters found that one in two Labour voters agreed with the judgment, with opinion split along generational lines – three-quarters of those aged between 50 and 64 years old support the ruling while just a third of those aged under 24 back it. Comparatively, 85 per cent of 2024 Tory supporters agree with the ruling while almost all of those who voted Reform last year (93 per cent) are in favour of the judgment. More than that, the research also found that voters from across the board (including those who backed the reds) would prefer ID documents to reflect a person’s biological sex rather than gender identity – after a government minister admitted that passports couldn’t be used to assess whether someone was male or female. Crikey…
Other issues that gender-critical campaigners have raised include the problem of public bodies not being forced to record biological sex – meaning different places may use sex and gender interchangeably. There is increasing pressure from peers to change rules so that public authorities record data using biological sex – with members of the House of Lords supporting a Tory amendment to the Date (Use and Access) Bill which backs this sentiment. A Labour source insisted to the Times that the polling shows that 'when Keir said he was taking a common-sense approach on single-sex spaces he was in step with voters'. Mr S would point out that this selective reading of history omits any reference to Sir Keir's rather considerable flip-flopping over the trans debate. Talk about rose-tinted glasses, eh?
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