Badenoch says Labour’s claims to have always defended single-sex spaces are a ‘shameless work of fiction’ – UK politics live
Phillipson tells MPs government will continue to protect single-sex spaces
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and minister for women and equality, is making her statement about the supreme court judgement.
She starts by saying this is personal for her.
Before I was elected to this place, I ran a women’s refuge in the north-east for women and children fleeing domestic violence. I know how important it is, and always want survivors to have single sex spaces, based on biology – places of safety after trauma, time in a sanctuary which allowed them therapeutic support, healing from unimaginable male violence and fear.
Phillipson says the government will continue to protect single-sex spaces, based on biological sex.
And it will protect “the rights of all people with protected characteristics now and always”.
Phillipson explains the background to the supreme court ruling.
The people who brought the legal challenge (gender critical feminists) were “not always been treated with the respect that they deserve”, she says.
She says the government supports freedom of speech. But, referring to the protests at the weekend against the judgment, she says “there can be no excuse for defacing statutes and feminist icons, no excuse for threats, no excuse for harassment”.
Key events
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Phillipson says Badenoch ‘did nothing’ for women when she was equalities minister
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Badenoch says Labour’s claims to have always defended single-sex spaces are ‘shameless work of fiction’
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Phillipson criticises Tories for not protecting single-sex spaces, particularly in hospitals
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Phillipson tells MPs government will continue to protect single-sex spaces
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Supreme court ruling means trans women should use male toilets, says equalities minister Bridget Phillipson
Christine Jardine cites Philippson’s experience of working in a refuge. She adds this issue “should not be at the cost of human rights and security of another vulnerable in society which this threatens to do.
She asks where can transgender people fleeing violence go for refuge and is it acceptable for transwomen being forced into men’s toilets.
Phillipson replies that dignity and respect should be all. And that is compatible with single sex spaces existing for biological women fleeing abuse.
She adds there are specialist services for trans people fleeing abuse.
Bridget Phillipson has urged the Conservatives to “get offline and get on board”.
Kemi Badenoch had told the Commons: “As minister for women and equalities, I published guidance for schools that made clear that toilets and changing rooms must be provided separately for girls and boys. She scrapped that guidance.
“Will she stand up to the unions and urgently publish what she now admits is the law?
“She also scrapped RHSE (relationships, health, and sex education) guidance to prevent schools from teaching contested gender ideology as fact. Will she now publish this guidance and remove materials that mis-state the law?”
Phillipson said in her reply: “Merely months before the election was called, they published a version of the draft guidance for gender-questioning children, and since that time we had the final review published by Dr Hilary Cass – it is right that we ensure that guidance aligns with Dr Cass’s final review.
“On the RHSE guidance, that consultation concluded after the election. We couldn’t be clearer – we will always protect single-sex spaces, and on this side of the House we are focused on delivering for women.”
She later added: “This Labour Government has a plan for change, a plan that will deliver for women. It’s time for her party to get offline and get on board.”
Kemi Badenoch has asked whether Keir Starmer will “crack down” on trans rights groups which protested over the weekend, after statues were daubed with graffiti.
She told the Commons: “Now that we have legal clarity, will the Prime Minister show some courage and do the right thing?
“Will he apologise to the member for Canterbury (independent MP Rosie Duffield) who faced so many security concerns as she was hounded out by the Labour Party and was rebuked by the Prime Minister and many Labour MPs sitting there looking at me for stating what the Supreme Court has now ruled to be true?
“Will she (Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson) apologise to the member for Canterbury? I doubt it.
“Will the Prime Minister crack down on the groups we saw defacing statues of Suffragists over the weekend with the same energy he reserves for his political opponents, or will we see more two-tier justice, because the last time we saw Labour MPs standing next to them with no rebuke whatsoever?”
Phillipson says Badenoch ‘did nothing’ for women when she was equalities minister
Andrew Sparrow
Phillipson was not cowered by Badenoch’s attack on Labour’s record on trans issues (see 5.57pm) and hit back forcefully.
Responding to the Tory leader, Phillipson said many people in Badenoch’s position would have run away from defending a record like hers. She went on:
She [Badenoch] had 14 years to provide clarity on the issues they may now claim to take an interest in, and the supreme court confirmed that Labour’s Equality Act is the basis for single sex spaces and protection. But they didn’t. They didn’t provide that clarity.
I have supported countless women and children fleeing male violence … And during my time running that refuge, while Labour was delivering the groundbreaking Equality Act, which this ruling confirms involved single-sex spaces, what was the leader of the opposition doing? She was busy hacking the website of the leading architect [of the Act – Harriet Harman].
She held the post of minister for women and equalities for two years, and did precisely nothing …
She comes here claiming to support women – look at her record and her party’s record: an increase in stalking offences, prosecutions and convictions for domestic abuse nearly halved since 2015 … a 2,000% increase in the use of mixed sex wards in over 10 years. That is their record.
That is all from me for today. Nadeem Badshah is taking over now.
Badenoch says Labour’s claims to have always defended single-sex spaces are ‘shameless work of fiction’
Unusually, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, responded to Phillipson’s statement on behalf of the opposition. She was minister for women and equalities in the last government and often sounds more animated when talking about transgender issues than anything else.
She started with the customary thanks for advance sight of the ministerial statement. But she said it was “mostly a shameless work of fiction”.
She explained:
I could not believe my eyes or my ears this afternoon. In 2021 the prime minister said it is not right to say only women have a cervix. In 2022 he said it is the law that trans women are women. In 2023 he said, and I quote, “99% of women don’t have a penis”.
I know what a woman is, and I always have the people of this country know what a woman is. We didn’t need the supreme court to tell us that, but this government did – a Labour government so desperate to jump on a bandwagon that they abandoned common sense, along with the SNP, who put rapists in women’s prisons, and, of course, the Liberal Democrats.
She claimed that Tories fought for women at every point but that it faced “hostility from activist groups”.
She said that, when she was in government, she argued for sex to be defined as biological sex. And she said she blocked the SNP introducing from introducing “their mad self identity laws”.
David Lammy, the foriegn secretary, even described opponents of gender self-ID as dinosaurs, she said. She goes on:
Labour now says that they knew what a woman is and the transgender should use services and facilities designated to their biological sex. They’ve never said this before. This is a U-turn, but we welcome it. Now that we have legal clarity.
Badenoch said that Starmer should apologise to Rosie Duffield, the former Labour MP who quit the party because, she said, she was virtually ostracised for her gender critical views.
Phillipson says the government will protect women’s wards.
And it will soon publish guidance on how trans patients should be accommodated.
She goes on:
We will continue to protect women’s safety with single-sex accommodation in women’s sport …
So in our prisons, in our hospitals, in sport, in a whole host of other spaces, what was true before the ruling remains true after the ruling – this government protects safe spaces for women under the Equality Act 2010.
Phillipson says the heat on this issued was “dialed up” by the Tories.
Rishi Sunak made jokes at the expense of trans people, she says.
By contrast, she claims, the Labour government will ensure trans people are treated with respect.
Phillipson criticises Tories for not protecting single-sex spaces, particularly in hospitals
Phillipson turns to the Conservatives, and attacks their record.
Our work to protect single-sex bases across society continues in earnest,because, for far too long, under the Conservative government, single-sex spaces were anything but.
And nowhere is that clearer than in our hospitals. Year after year, the party opposite pledged to close mixed sex wars, and yet, year after year, their views not only persisted. It grew massively and year after year, often in their most vulnerable moments, women were denied the privacy and the dignity that they deserved time after time.
Phillipson says the supreme court’s judgment is “welcome”.
The Equality and Human Rightxs Commission is updating its code of practice to reflect the ruling, she says. The government will review that, she says
Phillipson tells MPs government will continue to protect single-sex spaces
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary and minister for women and equality, is making her statement about the supreme court judgement.
She starts by saying this is personal for her.
Before I was elected to this place, I ran a women’s refuge in the north-east for women and children fleeing domestic violence. I know how important it is, and always want survivors to have single sex spaces, based on biology – places of safety after trauma, time in a sanctuary which allowed them therapeutic support, healing from unimaginable male violence and fear.
Phillipson says the government will continue to protect single-sex spaces, based on biological sex.
And it will protect “the rights of all people with protected characteristics now and always”.
Phillipson explains the background to the supreme court ruling.
The people who brought the legal challenge (gender critical feminists) were “not always been treated with the respect that they deserve”, she says.
She says the government supports freedom of speech. But, referring to the protests at the weekend against the judgment, she says “there can be no excuse for defacing statutes and feminist icons, no excuse for threats, no excuse for harassment”.
JK Rowling, the author and gender critical feminist campaigner who part-funded the legal challenge that led to last week’s supreme court judgment, has criticised Keir Starmer over his response to the ruling. She posted this on social media.
Imagine being such a coward you can only muster the courage to tell the truth once the Supreme Court has ruled on what the truth is.
