Keir Starmer U-Turns: ‘Trans Women Are Not Women’

Downing Street has said that British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer no longer believes that so-called “transgender women” are actually women in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling confirming the nature of biological reality.

Last week, Britain’s top court found that “the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man,” meaning that supposedly transgender individuals will be prohibited from using single-sex spaces like female-only changing rooms or bathrooms. The ruling will also likely bar biological males from competing in women’s sports.

While Prime Minister Starmer has previously struggled with the concept of binary genders, asked whether he still believed that a trans woman was a woman, a Downing Street spokesman told The Times this week: “No”.

Elaborating in an interview with ITV on Tuesday, the PM said: “A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear.

“I actually welcome the judgment because I think it gives real clarity. It allows those that have got to draw up guidance to be really clear about what that guidance should say. So I think it’s important that we see the judgment for what it is. It’s a welcome step forward.

“It’s real clarity in an area where we did need clarity — I’m pleased it’s come about. We need to… make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgment.”

The firm declaration differs from previous statements from Starmer before he came to power. In 2022, for example, then-opposition leader Starmer said: “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.”

The following year, Starmer, in a slight evolution of his position, he said that “99.9 per cent” of women “of course they haven’t got a penis”.

While Downing Street said this week that everyone should be treated with “dignity and respect”, a spokesman said that “all government departments, all public bodies, all private bodies” should prohibit transgender people from using single sex facilities. However, the spokesman said that it would be “up to businesses” to decide how they proceed on the matter.

Despite the PM “welcoming” the ruling from the Supreme Court, members of his leftist Labour Party, including ministers in his government, reportedly described the idea that biological men couldn’t use female bathrooms as “appalling”, according to leaked WhatsApp messages to the Mail on Sunday.

In the pro-LGBT group chat, MPs and ministers also discussed pressuring the government to enact legislation that the party put forward in its election manifesto last year, which included a pledge to ensure “the freedom for people to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity.”