Sir Keir Starmer had a long-term romance with a judge who has been accused of being influenced by trans activists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
A new biography of the Prime Minister reveals that before meeting his wife, Victoria, Sir Keir spent ‘years’ in a relationship with Maya Sikand KC, a high-flying barrister who now works as a part-time Crown Court judge.
Six years ago, Ms Sikand, 55, was at the centre of a legal row at the chambers where she worked, with a colleague claiming in court papers that she was part of a group that ‘explicitly endorsed the trans rights agenda’.
Last week, Sir Keir U-turned on his previously stated belief that ‘trans women are women’ in the eyes of the law.
He reversed his stance following a Supreme Court ruling that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the 2010 Equality Act ‘refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.
Ms Sikand last night said she was proud to represent people of all circumstances, saying impartiality is a ‘cornerstone’ of her legal work and that her work has included ‘numerous cases advancing the rights of women and girls’.
Red Flag, the updated Starmer biography by former Tory Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, says that Sir Keir became ‘close’ to Ms Sikand after she took a pupillage at his Doughty Street chambers in 1998.
Sir Keir Starmer had a long-term romance with a judge who has been accused of being influenced by trans activists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. A new biography of the Prime Minister reveals that Sir Keir spent ‘years’ in a relationship with Maya Sikand KC (pictured), a high-flying barrister who now works as a part-time Crown Court judge
Sir Keir met his wife, Victoria Alexander (pictured) , a solicitor, when they were working on a case together. They married in 2007
The book, which is being serialised exclusively in today’s Mail on Sunday and tomorrow’s Daily Mail, quotes a contemporary as saying: ‘It was an open secret that Maya was having a relationship with him.
‘I remember sitting in a restaurant with some barrister colleagues when Keir sent her a text message and she passed her phone around and showed it to some of those present.
‘She was smitten.’
The book also reports one of Starmer’s acquaintances as saying that Sir Keir and Ms Sikand saw each other ‘for years’, and both later contributed to a legal textbook, Blackstone’s Criminal Practice, published in 2008.
Another source is quoted as saying: ‘Maya still likes him a lot even though his treatment of her left a lot to be desired.’
In 2019, Ms Sikand was at the centre of a furious trans rights row which rocked Garden Court, the legal chambers where she worked for more than 20 years.
Ms Sikand was tasked with investigating fellow Garden Court barrister Allison Bailey over a series of comments Ms Bailey had posted on Twitter about transgender issues.
Ms Sikand was tasked with investigating fellow Garden Court barrister Allison Bailey over a series of comments Ms Bailey had posted on Twitter about transgender issues. Garden Court, which is known for fighting Left-wing causes, was a member of the Stonewall group’s controversial Diversity Champions scheme
Garden Court, which is known for fighting Left-wing causes, was a member of the Stonewall group’s controversial Diversity Champions scheme.
Critics claim that companies and public bodies who sign up to the £2,500-a-year initiative are encouraged to embrace the charity’s ideology of transgender self-identification.
Ms Bailey’s tweets included criticism of Stonewall’s campaign.
In one, she thanked The Times newspaper for ‘fairly & accurately reporting on the appalling levels of intimidation, fear & coercion that are driving the @stonewalluk trans self-id agenda’.
Stonewall complained and, following her probe, Ms Sikand said two of the tweets could have contravened conduct rules. Ms Bailey was told to delete them.
Ms Sikand’s findings were bitterly contested by Ms Bailey and, in a landmark ruling in 2022, an employment tribunal found that Garden Court had victimised and discriminated against Ms Bailey because of her gender-critical beliefs.
Red Flag, the updated Starmer biography by former Tory Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, says that Sir Keir became ‘close’ to Ms Sikand after she took a pupillage at his Doughty Street chambers in 1998
In her evidence to the tribunal, Ms Bailey claimed Ms Sikand ‘did not conduct her report independently’ and that she later discovered that Ms Sikand was a member of Garden Court’s ‘trans rights working group’ (TRWG).
Ms Bailey, a friend of gender-critical author JK Rowling, said the group’s existence demonstrated how the chambers had ‘explicitly endorsed the trans rights agenda’.
In 2018 the TRWG invited a radical trans rights activist group called Gendered Intelligence to train barristers ‘on creating an inclusive environment for trans people’.
Ms Bailey said in her evidence: ‘Whether or not Maya Sikand is ‘independent minded’… she did not conduct her report independently. She may not have undertaken work for Stonewall, but she was part of the Trans Rights Working Group.’
In one comment to another lawyer about some of Ms Bailey’s tweets, Ms Sikand said: ‘Given that we are a Stonewall Diversity Champion, I do not think she should be maligning them.’
The employment tribunal also appeared to question Ms Sikand’s impartiality. It said that although ‘initially neutral’, Ms Sikand’s ‘hostility’ to some of Ms Bailey’s tweets ‘seems to have been influenced by Garden Court being a Diversity Champion’.
Pictured: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrive to cast their votes in the 2024 General Election
In a statement to the MoS last night, Ms Sikand said: ‘Impartiality is not only a cornerstone of the approach to my practice in combating discrimination but also demonstrated through a caseload which includes numerous cases advancing the rights of women and girls as well as a wider range of issues.
‘I remain privileged to be able to advocate for people from all backgrounds, beliefs, and circumstances, and will not be drawn on details taken out of context.’
Last week, this newspaper revealed that Sir Keir’s ministers were in revolt over his new-found backing for the Supreme Court’s judgment.
In leaked WhatsApp messages, ministers vowed to ‘organise’ following the ruling that men who change gender are not legally women.
In one exchange, Culture Minister Sir Chris Bryant joined an attack on Baroness Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who had said the ruling meant trans women could not use single-sex female facilities or compete in women’s sports.
Sir Keir met his wife, Victoria Alexander, a solicitor, when they were working on a case together. They married in 2007.
Indian-born Ms Sikand moved to the UK in 1980 and was educated at Moira House, a private school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and Oxford University.
After a pupillage at Doughty Street chambers, where she allegedly had her relationship with Sir Keir, Ms Sikand forged a career as a leading human rights barrister. She worked on the 1998 Macpherson Inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and is an expert on immigration law and modern slavery.
In 2018 she was appointed as a Recorder, a part-time criminal judge.
