Four-and-half years ago, the then leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, took to the podium at the PinkNews Awards and told the LGBTQ+ community that there was a “desperate need” to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and to introduce self-ID for trans people.
Fast-forward to 2025 and Starmer apparently no longer even believes that trans women are women.
This is just one example of the U-turns that Starmer and other Labour politicians have made when it comes to trans rights in recent years, which today PinkNews is putting under the spotlight in the wake of the prime minister’s support of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of “sex”.
Last week, the UK’s top court delivered an 88-page judgement in a landmark case brought by gender critical group For Women Scotland – backed by JK Rowling – who asked the judges to consider: “Is a person with a full Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which recognises that their gender is female, a ‘woman’ for the 2010 Equality Act?”
The court decided the protected characteristic of “sex” did not include transgender women. In an oral summary, Lord Patrick Hodge said: “The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.”
The ruling is set to have wide-ranging implications for trans and non-binary people well as public bodies and organisations, who will very possibly be forced to change their polices on inclusion and single-sex spaces.
In the first seven days since then, British Transport Police has implemented an interim policy which means trans women suspects can be strip-searched by male officers and the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned that the NHS will be “pursued” if changes to policies on single-sex spaces are not implemented quickly enough.
On Tuesday (22 April), Starmer broke his silence on the ruling and expressed his pleasure at the outcome.
“I welcome the decision of the Supreme Court, which has given us much-needed clarity, and I think for those now drawing up guidance, it’s a much clearer position,” he told the BBC. “I’m really pleased the court has clarified the position. We can move on from there and that’s very helpful. I welcome that.”
Starmer went on to say that “a woman is an adult female”, and asked by ITV if he believed trans women were women, he replied: “I think the Supreme Court has answered that question. A woman is an adult female, the court has made that absolutely clear.
“It’s important that we see the judgement for what it is: a welcome step forward. We need to move [on] and ensure all guidance is in the right place according to that judgement.”
Other top Labour figures have also signalled their support for the verdict, including equalities minister and education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who said transgender women should no longer use female toilets.
The self-ID U-turn
Not quite five years ago, Labour was committed to introducing self-ID for trans people, but that is no longer the case – a screaming U-turn by Starmer.
Self-ID, otherwise known as self-declaration, refers to allowing trans people to change their sex legally without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Many countries, including Switzerland, New Zealand and Ireland, have introduced self-ID, and trans men and women in those countries have told us, “the sky hasn’t fallen in.”
Starmer told PinkNews at the LGBT+ Labour leadership hustings in 2020: “Trans rights are human rights and I support the right to self-identification.
“The Gender Recognition Act was a step in the right direction but it doesn’t go far enough. Other countries have now gone past us with more rights, therefore it does need extending. I agree about the dehumanising aspects of the [gender recognition] process but we want to have this debate in the right spirit.
“I don’t think it helps to have too heated a debate about it, it must be possible to move forward in the right spirit.”
In a post shared in September of that year, the party’s official X/Twitter account reaffirmed the commitment to self-ID. “Labour is committed to equality and we continue to support updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people,” it read.
At the PinkNews Awards three months later, Starmer described himself as a “proud ally” and made his comment about the need to reform the GRA.
Little more than three years later, Labour announced it had ruled out a self-ID system, and would keep the need for a gender dysphoria diagnosis before it was possible to obtain a GRC.
Writing in The Guardian, then shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds took aim at Holyrood’s attempt at gender legislation reform, which was blocked by the Tory government in Westminster, and said Labour would “modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law to a new process” and “remove invasive bureaucracy and simplify the process”.
That phrase echoed Starmer’s speech at the 2022 PinkNews Awards where he vowed Labour would “modernise the Gender Recognition Act”.
Dodds went on to say Labour’s vision of reform would keep the “medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria” as an “important” part of obtaining a GRC, officially confirming the party no longer supported the idea of self-ID.
By the time the 2024 General Election rolled around, Starmer told PinkNews in a lengthy written response less than 24 hour before the polls opened that the party would “modernise, simplify and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law to a new process.”
He added: “We will remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance, while retaining the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a specialist doctor, enabling access to the healthcare pathway for those who need it.
“I’ve been clear that the discourse around the lives of trans people has become far too toxic. Labour will always treat trans people with respect and dignity. My Labour government – if we come in to serve – will provide a reset moment for those in the LGBT+ community who want to live as they choose, in accordance with the law.”
Trans women are women – until they aren’t
In recent years, the phrase “what is a woman” has become an anti-trans dog-whistle, used by those who wish to diminish the womanhood of trans women. It has made its way into questions for political leaders as if it is on par with queries about the economy and defence policies.
Starmer previously said that trans women are women, and trans men are men, but his answers to questions on the definition of womanhood and the category of “sex” under the terms of the Equality Act have flipped and flopped over the years.
In April 2023, he stirred anger within the LGBTQ+ community and was accused of “throwing trans people under the bus” when he said: “For 99.9 per cent of women, it is completely biological… and of course they haven’t got a penis.”
Three months on, in response to the “penis question”, he described a woman as an “adult female”, another dog-whistle phrase typically used by anti-trans groups to stoke division between trans rights and cis women.
The following year, just weeks before he became health secretary, gay Labour MP Wes Streeting said he no longer stood by the statement that “trans men are men, trans women are women”, adding: “To the extent that, and I say this with some self-criticism and reflection, if you’d asked me a few years ago, on this topic, I would have said ‘trans men are men, trans women are women, some people are trans, get over it, let’s move on, this is all blown out of proportion’.
“And now I sort of sit and reflect and think there are lots of complexities.”
In June 2024, just days before the general election, Starmer was once again quizzed about “what a woman is” and his criticism of gender-critical then Labour MP for Canterbury Rosie Duffield in 2021, with whom he had disagreed on trans issues.
“On the biology, I agree with what Tony Blair said the other day in relation to men having penises and women having vaginas,” he replied.
When pushed as to whether he had “changed his position” on the topic, the Labour leader said: “There are some people who don’t identify with the gender they are born into and they go through a lot of anxiety and distress, and my view in life is to respect and give dignity to everyone, whatever their position. I will always do that.”
In 2021, Starmer had said it was “not right” for Duffield, who gave up the Labour whip in September 2024 to become an independent, to say “only women have a cervix” but in an interview with Good Morning Britain in 2024 he backtracked, saying: “Biologically, she of course is right about that.”
On Tuesday (22 April), asked if the PM still believed that a transgender woman was a woman, his official spokesman said: “No, the Supreme Court judgement has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman. That is set out clearly by the court judgement.”
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