Sir Keir Starmer has said transgender women do not have a right to access female-only spaces, amid confusion over Labour’s stance on which lavatories trans people should use.
The Labour leader said biological males who have legally transitioned should not enter areas designated for women, insisting those spaces “need to be protected”.
His comments came after two of his frontbenchers refused to say whether someone with a penis should be allowed to use women’s lavatories.
In an interview with The Times, Sir Keir was presented with a question posed by author JK Rowling on whether people who are born male and have gone through a legal transition process should be able to use female-only spaces.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the Harry Potter author, who has said she would “struggle to support” Labour if he does not change his stance on trans rights, asked: “Do biological males with gender recognition certificates have the right to enter women-only spaces? It’s a simple yes/no question.”
In response, Sir Keir said: “No. They don’t have that right. They shouldn’t. That’s why I’ve always said biological women’s spaces need to be protected.”
The Labour leader added that he hoped a meeting with the author, who has been outspoken on trans issues, could be organised.
While Sir Keir did not mention lavatories specifically, his comments suggest a hardening of Labour’s stance on the issue, after two shadow cabinet ministers refused to say whether trans women who have not undergone gender reassignment surgery should be allowed to use women’s facilities.
On Monday, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, was asked by LBC’s Nick Ferrari whether he would want a trans woman with a penis to use a male or female lavatory.
The Labour frontbencher replied: “I’m not a toilet monitor.” When pressed to clarify his stance, he said: “We don’t have police officers outside or guards outside every set of [lavatories]… Matters like that are for individual establishments.”
His comments came a week after Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, refused eight times to answer the same question.
She had previously suggested that transgender women should be able to use the women’s lavatory.
Last week Sir Keir clashed with a radio caller who accused him of speaking “absolute twaddle” over access to single-sex spaces.
A BBC Radio 5 Live listener called Jane said the Labour leader was “not listening to biological women when they say they don’t want to share a space with biological men”.
The trans debate has become a key battleground in the election, with the Tories accusing Labour of planning to “dilute women’s rights” by introducing self-ID “by the back door”.
To get a GRC trans people have to receive sign-off by a panel of doctors and lawyers and provide two years of evidence that they have been living in their new gender.
Labour has said it is planning to “simplify” the process, which it has branded “degrading and torturous” for trans people, by downgrading both requirements.
The party has said it would keep the requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria but that this could now be provided by a single clinician.
It would also downgrade the requirement for evidence to a two-year “reflection” period, which could mean a medical diagnosis is all that is needed for a certificate.
Under the plans there is no requirement for people to have either had gender reassignment surgery, or be planning to do so, in order to legally change their gender.
Elsewhere in The Times interview, Sir Keir also said people would feel “better off” by the end of Labour’s first term if his party wins the election.
He said: “I have led and changed Labour. If we get the opportunity, we will govern as we have changed Labour, which is to take the country from the pretty poor place that it’s in at the moment and to seriously change it, so that by the end of the first term of a Labour government people will be able to say, ‘do you know what, I am better off’ — materially better off in the sense of ‘more money in my pocket’.
“But also better off in the sense that my public services are working again. Schools are what I would expect from them. I have a belief in the future for my children. That requires a serious plan with a strategy, which is what we set out in our manifesto.”
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