British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reversed his long-held stance on the transgender issue Tuesday, declaring “a woman is an adult female” and backing a Supreme Court ruling that defines sex in law as biological.
The shift comes after the UK’s highest court ruled unanimously last week that the term “woman” in the 2010 Equality Act refers to biological sex, not self-declared gender identity. Starmer’s spokesperson told The Independent “no” when asked if “trans women are women” — a phrase he previously championed in lockstep with the progressive left.
“I think the Supreme Court has answered that question,” Starmer said of whether male-to-female transgenders are women in an interview with ITV News. “Look, 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.”
The interview marks a major political reversal for Labour’s leader, who previously said that “trans women are women” and framed that view as consistent with British law.
“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,” Starmer, then the opposition leader, told The Times in 2022.
The court decision has reignited a broader debate in British politics over how sex should be treated in law and public policy. For years, Labour faced questions over whether it would protect female-only spaces or advance gender self-identification. With the high court’s ruling, the prime minister appears to be aligning his government more clearly with a biological definition — a move potentially more likely to resonate with a broader variety of voters. The pivot is especially salient as voting intention polls suggest the Tories, Labour and the Reform Party are neck and neck as of April, according to YouGov UK polling.
While the ruling clarified the term “woman” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, it did not eliminate the UK’s existing legal process for changing one’s gender recognition. Men identifying as women can still apply for a “gender recognition certificate,” which legally changes their sex on official documents. The court made clear, though, that holding such a certificate does not entitle males to be counted as women for purposes like board quotas or single-sex spaces — reaffirming that biological sex remains the legal standard.
This isn’t the first time Starmer has shifted toward a more traditionally Conservative stance. His government introduced emergency legislation in late March to halt new Sentencing Council guidelines that would have required judges to consider an offender’s ethnic, cultural or religious background when determining criminal penalties — codifying what critics like Conservative MP Robert Jenrick called a “two-tiered” justice system targeting native Britons.
Similarly, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, a member of the Labour Party, labelled the proposed guidelines as enforcing “differential treatment,” emphasizing that “equality before the law is the backbone of public confidence in our justice system.” The Sentencing Council delayed the implementation of the new guidelines on March 31 amid pending legislation to halt them.
The recent string of political pivots within Labour suggest a broader recalibration of the party’s platform ahead of the next general election. The next election is scheduled for 2029, though the prime minister can call a snap election at any time before then.
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