Sir Keir Starmer was last night under mounting pressure to break his silence over the Supreme Court’s landmark gender ruling.
Five days on, the Prime Minister was urged to back the judgement publicly and to promise it will not be unpicked after it emerged that two frontbenchers are plotting to defy the ruling.
But Downing Street yesterday refused to punish the ministers, claiming they were not trying to undermine the judgment despite one of them calling on fellow Labour MPs to meet this week to ‘decide a way forwards’ and ‘organise’.
Sir Keir’s silence sparked fresh fears that the Government may allow the ruling – that men who change gender are not legally women – to be undone, with several bodies already vowing to challenge it.
While the Government said it welcomed last Wednesday’s judgement, the PM, who was holidaying at the time of the decision but is understood to have now returned home, is yet to comment.
This is despite the huge significance to public life and the thousands of organisations affected up and down the country, including major public bodies such as the NHS.
Last night there were calls for Sir Keir to give his full backing to the ruling with a statement when Parliament returns from recess tomorrow (Tues).
Marion Calder, co-founder of For Women Scotland, which won the historic court victory, said it was ‘astonishing’ to see ministers discussing ways to ‘circumvent’ the ruling.
Sir Keir Starmer has failed to publicly comment on the Supreme Court ruling for five days
Susan Smith (L) and Marion Calder, co-founders of For Women Scotland, celebrate after the Supreme Court ruling went their way on Wednesday
Campaigners Susan Smith (L) and Marion Calder, of For Women Scotland, celebrate by raising a glass outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday after judges sided with them
She told the Mail last night: ‘To see government ministers discussing how they can circumvent the ruling, rather than how they can ensure their departments are actually following the rule of law, is quite astonishing
‘And it is disappointing that we haven’t heard anything from the Prime Minister yet. I understand it’s the holidays, but we had to give up our holidays for this case.
‘We look forward to actually hearing from him.
‘There are a lot of people looking to him for direction. This has to come from Sir Keir, it shouldn’t be left to women like us or people on the front lines in the likes of the NHS to interpret this and make sure it’s followed.’
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at human rights charity Sex Matters, which submitted evidence in the Supreme Court case, said: ‘If neither the Prime Minister nor the Secretary of State for Women and Equalities makes a statement to this effect on the first day back after Parliamentary recess, something is seriously wrong.’
And Caroline Ffiske, from Conservatives for Women, added: ‘The government’s role now is to ensure that thousands of service providers across the country understand the law and implement it correctly, undoing years of confusion and bad guidance.
‘If Labour won’t do this, grassroots women will have to do it themselves. But they won’t forget the betrayal.’
In WhatsApp messages published by The Mail on Sunday, sent on Thursday evening, Culture Minister Sir Chris Bryant joined an attack on Baroness Falkner, chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which must draw up guidance for organisations to follow when enforcing the ruling.
Earlier that day she said the ruling – that a woman is defined by biological sex – clearly meant trans women could not use single-sex female facilities or compete in women’s sports.
After Steve Race, the Labour MP for Exeter, said that Lady Falkner’s words were ‘pretty appalling’, Mr Bryant replied: ‘Agreeed [sic].’
Another MP on the WhatsApp group wrote that it was ‘sad to see some institutions choose to ignore the Supreme Court’s very strong line that trans people are protected by the Equality Act too’.
Home Office Minister Dame Angela Eagle replied: ‘They won’t be feeling that way now and we need to remember that and organise.’
MPs agreed with her suggestion that they should seek a meeting ‘ASAP with [the] relevant Equality Minister’ when the Commons returns.
Sir Chris Bryant is one of two ministers who expressed concerns after the ruling and has been accused of plotting to defy it
Dame Angela Eagle is another minister accused of plotting to defy the ruling after urging MPs to ‘organise’ in leaked WhatsApp messages
Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, a parent-led campaign group concerned about the rise in young people changing gender, said: ‘These ministers need to decide if they’re in the right job. Are they trans activists or are they members of parliament elected to represent all of their constituents?
‘The hypocrisy of members of the party that calls for “an end to the culture wars” is exposed here. This is why so many women have lost faith with Labour.
‘How can we expect them to uphold women’s basic rights if ministers consider that the law protecting those rights is “appalling”?’
Disclosure of the WhatsApp messages will only heighten fears that Labour could allow the court’s ruling to be defied, given Sir Keir’s own shaky record over the definition of a woman.
Robert Jenrick, the Tories’ justice spokesman, said: ‘Where is the Prime Minister?
‘Why won’t he publicly welcome this landmark ruling that protects the rights of women?
‘It’s high time he displayed some leadership and made clear what a woman is.
‘But as he won’t, it’s no surprise Labour ministers are secretly scheming to unpick the legal definition of a woman as a biological female.
‘Starmer needs to choose whether he’s on the side of women or rogue ministers and radical trans activists.’
Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who quit the party after Sir Keir sidelined her for saying that only women have a cervix, said: ‘It would be nice to hear from the Prime Minister following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
‘Those people, mostly women, who have lost their jobs because their organisations, including many Government departments, subscribed to [LGBT rights charity] Stonewall’s interpretation of the law instead of the reality of the Equality Act, need to hear that the Government now expects them to abide by the judgement and adjust their practices to protect women’s sex-based rights.
‘Therefore, he also needs to make a clear statement about his own MPs and Ministers who appear to be plotting against this judgement. Women are waiting.’
In 2022, Sir Keir 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.
Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield is one of many MPs happy at the ruling. The now independent MP was sidelined by the Sir Keir Starmer for saying that only women have cervixes
A clear message from the PM could be crucial for the ruling’s enforcement, campaigners believe, as several bodies have vowed to challenge it.
Over the weekend, teachers voted at a conference in Liverpool to stop schools making ‘kneejerk’ changes to their trans policies until the government issues further guidance.
The NASUWT union claimed the judgment could lead schools to make rules which put transgender teachers ‘at risk of harm’.
Labour has already come under fire over its response to last Wednesday’s unanimous court verdict.
On Thursday, Health Minister Karin Smyth failed four times to clarify which changing room trans women should now use.
After being given several attempts by the Mail to comment, No 10 refused to say anything on the record about the PM’s view of the ruling.
A source simply said: ‘His position is the very clear Government position as we issued this week.’
