by Glen Owen, Daily Mail
Ministers’ leaked messages reveal their fury at calls to ban transgender women from female-only changing rooms
Labour ministers are secretly plotting to defy the landmark court ruling that men who change gender are not legally women, leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by The Mail on Sunday have revealed.
The Government claimed to welcome the Supreme Court judgment – but the exchanges reveal the private fury on Sir Keir Starmer’s frontbench, with ministers planning to hold a meeting this week to ‘decide a way forwards’ and ‘organise’.
In the messages, sent on Thursday evening, Culture Minister Sir Chris Bryant joined an attack on Baroness Falkner, chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), who earlier that day had said that the ruling – that a woman is defined by biological sex – clearly meant trans women could not use single-sex female facilities or compete in women’s sports.
When an MP said that Lady Falkner’s words were ‘pretty appalling’, Mr Bryant wrote: ‘Agreeed [sic].’
Last night, with the Government in turmoil, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Cabinet Secretary calling for an investigation into a statement by Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson, who reacted to the judgment by saying: ‘We have always supported the protection of single sex spaces based on biological sex.’
In her letter to Sir Chris Wormald, who is also the Head of the Civil Service, Ms Badenoch argued that it could constitute a ‘false public statement’ – because last June Ms Phillipson declared that trans women with penises should be able to use single-sex spaces.