Keir Starmer no longer believes trans women are women, says Number 10

Keir Starmer no longer believes trans women are women in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court ruling, which will negatively affect trans people across the UK.

The prime minister had previously said that “trans women are women”, but asked to repeat that statement on Tuesday, April 22 he said the ruling had “answered that question”.

Downing Street was subsequently asked if Sir Keir still believes that ‘trans women are women” with his official spokesman saying: “No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman. That is set out clearly by the court judgment.”

His comments came just hours after the Labour equalities minister Bridget Phillipson welcomed the ruling, saying trans women should use male toilets, adding that “services should be accessed on the basis of biological sex”.

Anti-trans rights activists won their JK Rowling-funded Supreme Court challenge last week over the definition of a woman.

Writing on the BlueSky social media platform, the Good Law Project said: “[The court] didn’t hear from a single trans person. This ruling sets a dangerous precedent and erases trans women from protections. It puts trans rights back 20 years. We won’t stop fighting for trans rights.”

Backed financially by JK Rowling, who’s now known for spouting controversial posts on social media about the trans community, the gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland said the Equality Act’s definition of a woman was limited to people born biologically female.

Five judges from the UK supreme court agreed – ruling that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include trans women who hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).

This decision means trans women can no longer sit on public boards in places set aside for women.

It could have far wider ramifications by leading to much greater restrictions on the rights of trans women to use services and spaces reserved for women, and spark calls for the UK’s laws on gender recognition to be rewritten.

Asked about the issue on Tuesday, April 22 Sir Keir said that a woman was an “adult female”. And, in his first public comments since the justices’ decision on 16 April, the Labour leader said he was “really pleased” with the clarity offered by the court’s ruling.

He said the judgment was a “welcome step forward” adding: “It’s real clarity in an area where we did need clarity, I’m pleased it’s come about. We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgment.”

In March 2022, before he entered No 10, Sir Keir told The Times that “a woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view, that is actually the law”.

A year later he appeared to change his position, stating that 99.9 per cent of women “haven’t got a penis”.