The Beaumont Society condemns the recent statement by Keir Starmer (30/6/25) calling for all bodies to enforce a trans exclusion ban from single-sex spaces

This is a very troubling statement issued by a Prime Minister who seems to be hell-bent on undoing the history of equality and inclusivity championed by previous Labour governments, but also by someone who used to be a Human Rights lawyer and who seems to have forgotten what Human Rights are and should have known better. His statement is discriminatory in the extreme against a persecuted minority and is not based on any evidence that that minority represent any form of a threat to any part of UK society, quite the contrary instead. The Supreme Court ruling that he cites does not state that trans people should be excluded from single sex spaces, in fact it states very clearly that it is limited to only certain aspects of the Equality Act itself and is currently subject to a judicial review as well as being challenged in the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling itself was based on a lack of understanding of what constitutes sex, gender or biology. The phrase a common understanding of sex was used, however, there is no such thing, sex is a highly complex combination of multiple factors none of which are simple binaries. So, as such, the ruling that sex is determined by a hurried look at a baby’s genitals at the time of birth is, as described by the BMA, both medically nonsensical and biologically illiterate

So, we call on the Prime Minister to disavow the statement he made on Monday, to return to his previous acceptance that trans men are men and trans women are women and look to revise the law to enshrine this simple fact in such a way that it cannot be misinterpreted in the future. The transgender community is sick and tired of being used as a distraction, or bogeyman, to divert attention from the problematic policies that his and previous governments have introduced. Perhaps he should concentrate on the socialist ideals that the Labour party has traditionally stood for instead of attempting to outdo the far-right ideologies of the Tories and Reform UK.

The weight of history, and the regard of the many countries around the world that have accepted and introduced into law this simple Human Rights fact will be waiting to judge his actions now and if he does not change them to being of inclusion and acceptance, that opinion will not be favourable.