I am a passionate advocate for women's rights and I welcome the Conservative commitment to changing the law so that biological sex is a clear characteristic under the Equality Act and that same sex spaces will always be provided and protected. Keir Starmer for years couldn't even say what a woman was and cannot be trusted to do the same.

Rebecca Harris

The Conservatives have pledged to define the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act as biological sex.

It is now clear there is currently a lack of clarity in the law, leaving single-sex providers vulnerable to challenge, risking the safety of women and girls. That is why we will introduce new legislation to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex. This follows the recommendations of the Equality and Human Rights Commission who advised that defining sex as biological sex for the Equality Act would bring greater legal clarity.

We believe biological women should almost always be accommodated on same sex wards with other biological women. There are very few circumstances in which mixed sex accommodation can be clinically justified. That is why we are making it more straightforward for hospitals to make a women’s-only ward a space for biological women, so they can be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. We are also correcting the current situation to allow single-sex organisations, for example a women’s victim support group, to restrict membership to biological women.

Legislation will also ensure that a person in the United Kingdom can only have one legal sex in the eyes of the law. We are one United Kingdom and it cannot be right to have people legally recognised as different genders in different parts of the country.

What do Keir Starmer’s Labour Party think?

The Labour Party cannot be trusted to protect women’s rights. Sir Keir Starmer backed self-identification and repeatedly refused for years to say whether a woman can have a penis. Labour have called these reforms to protect women a distraction which are not needed. Only the Conservatives will do what is necessary to protect women’s rights.