Keir Starmer
© The TelegraphLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer appears as a guest on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show
Sir Keir Starmer has criticised a Labour MP's remarks about trans women and called for laws to go further to protect trans rights.

The Labour leader said Rosie Duffield, who is not attending the party conference in Brighton after receiving threats and being branded transphobic, was wrong to say "only women have a cervix".

He called for a "mature and respectful debate" around trans rights, as he warned that trans individuals are among the "most marginalised and abused communities".


Comment: Apparently Starmer is only intent on respecting the rights of those suffering from transgenderism, and apparently a mature debate is prioritising the feelings of a vanishingly small number of people over scientific facts.



Ms Duffield has faced criticism for opposing people who were born male but self-identify as trans having access to spaces such as domestic violence refuges, school toilets and prisons.


Comment: Ms Duffield's has valid reason to want to protect female only spaces, because, going off their logic, any predatory pervert can suddenly declare he's 'changed his gender' and enter female toilets and changing rooms: Sex offending suspect claims transgender harassment in Wi Spa case


The Canterbury MP also queried being called a "transphobe" for "knowing that only women have a cervix".

Sir Keir declined to call her remarks transphobic, but did tell The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One: "It is something that shouldn't be said. It is not right.
Duffield
© The TelegraphRosie Duffield, the Labour MP for Canterbury, has received threats over her views on transgender rights
"I spoke to Rosie earlier this week and told her conference is a safe place for her to come, and it is a safe place for her to come.

"We do everybody a disservice when we reduce what is a really important issue to these exchanges on particular things that are said."

Sir Keir added: "We need to have a mature, respectful debate about trans rights and we need to bear in mind that the trans community are amongst the most marginalised and abused communities, and wherever we've got to on the law, we need to go further."

Health Secretary Sajid Javid accused Sir Keir of a "total denial of scientific facts".

"And he wants to run the NHS," the Tory MP tweeted.



Comment: Whilst Javid is right, he's also an MP for the ruling Conservative party that oversaw a recent ruling that gives children access to harmful hormone blocking drugs used in the transgender industry, his party also implemented new legislation that makes it even easier for adults to 'change their gender' for just £5.


Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said she was shocked by the level of abuse aimed at female politicians and it was a "concern" that Ms Duffield felt unable to attend the conference.

Ms Rayner told Sky News: "What I have been shocked by, especially my female colleagues - and that's Conservative female MPs as well - is the level of misogynist abuse they get."

She promised "robust" action against any Labour member who targets Ms Duffield.

"Rosie deserves our full support and protection against that and she would get that. If she had come to conference, we would have risk-assessed and made sure that she had every bit of support that she needed to be here.

Robust response to abuse

"Anybody who abuses Rosie Duffield who is a member of the Labour Party would go through our formal complaints procedure and I would expect a robust response on it."

Wes Streeting, the shadow child poverty minister and a close ally of Sir Keir, signalled his agreement with his party leader by retweeting a report of his comments about Ms Duffield.

But Mark Jenkinson, the Tory MP for Workington, wrote that Sir Keir "has well and truly lost control of his own party, and of reality".

"Rosie Duffield can't attend [Labour's] own conference for fears over her safety after she stood up for women in the face of Hard-Left misogyny," he said. "Weak Sir Keir refuses to stand up for women."

Brendan Clarke-Smith, another member of the 2019 'Red Wall' intake of Conservative MPs, wrote: "Only women have a cervix. There, I said it, it's not difficult. Women also have a right to women-only spaces.

"Speaking up in defence of women's rights doesn't mean that we can't respect how others wish to live their lives."

Jackie Doyle-Price, the Conservative MP for Thurrock, said the Conservatives "would be laughing all the way to the ballot box" at Sir Keir's comments.