Kemi Badenoch warns ‘predators’ are exploiting gender legal guidelines

Gender laws are being exploited by ‘predators’, Kemi Badenoch warned today – as the Tories vowed to pass a law defining sex as biological.

Rishi Sunak has moved to put so-called culture wars at the heart of the election battle, heaping pressure on Keir Starmer to spell out his position.

A landmark change would rewrite part of the Equality Act so transgender women can be blocked from entering female-only spaces such as single-sex hospital wards, rape crisis centres, prison cells and lavatories, and from competing in women’s sports.

That would cover transgender women who have had reconstructive surgery and those who have a Gender Recognition Certificate stating that they have changed gender. 

The new law would apply across the UK – in a move certain to enrage the SNP after its abortive effort to impose much looser rules. 

At present, if organisers try to block transgender women from female-only spaces, they face legal challenges and being sued for discrimination.

Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch insisted this morning that men were ‘exploiting loopholes in the law by calling themselves trans’. 

In a round of interviews, she said: ‘Just putting on a different set of clothes does not make you transgender.’

Ms Badenoch said transgender athletes would not be ‘stopped from competing’ but would in some cases have to be classified as their biological sex.

She added: ‘What we are trying to stop is the scenario where we see very obvious unfair advantages, people who have gone through male puberty towering over fragile, and in some cases much, much smaller females.’

Ms Badenoch also clashed with Sky News‘ Kay Burley as she challenged her suggestion that the law was addressing ‘extreme cases’. 

Mr Sunak would kick-start the process for new primary legislation to clarify the law within days of a Conservative government being re-elected. 

Gender-critical campaigners, including former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, welcomed the pledge as a victory for ‘common sense’.

The move is the Tories’ latest bid to put clear blue water between them and Labour ahead of polling day on July 4.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has previously suggested that no such law change was needed, having stated in 2022 that ‘trans women are women’ and that it’s wrong to say that ‘only women have a cervix’.

Writing in today’s Mail, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins says: ‘Labour would take this right back to square one. For years, they have aided and abetted those who put ideology above scientific facts.’

In August last year, the Mail revealed how shocking guidance drawn up by NHS chiefs meant patients who only occasionally identify as women are allowed to share female-only wards. This was regardless of whether they had had surgery or legally changed sex.

The project to rewrite part of the Equality Act on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity was initially proposed by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch.

Last night she said: ‘Whether it is rapists being housed in women’s prisons, or instances of men playing in women’s sports where they have an unfair advantage, it is clear that public authorities and regulatory bodies are confused about what the law says on sex and gender and when to act – often for fear of being accused of transphobia, or not being inclusive.

‘That is why we are today pledging that, if we form a government after the election, we will clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word.’

Mr Sunak added: ‘The safety of women and girls is too important to allow the current confusion around definitions of sex and gender to persist.’

In April last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission backed the proposed change.

Ms Davies, who has been campaigning to ensure trans women can’t compete in women’s sport, said: ‘I’m extremely pleased. There’s a very big difference between wanting to be something and actually being something.

‘I very much hope if it’s clarified we can now go after any and all sporting organisations that are discriminating against biological females by not offering equal opportunities of success in their own competitions, by allowing males in categories for females.’

Stephanie Davies-Arai, of Transgender Trend, said: ‘This is a return to common sense and reality from the Government.’

Heather Binning, of the Women’s Rights Network, said: ‘We welcome any party who pledges to preserve sex-based rights.’

The sex of those with a Gender Recognition Certificate will still align with their acquired gender in law outside the Equality Act, for example marriage law, as is the status quo.