Tetchy Kemi Badenoch hit out at a BBC presenter who was asking “very technical” details about her own party’s plans to amend equality laws.
The Minister for Women and Equalities was grilled by BBC Radio 4’s Mishal Husain about the Tories’ election pledge to define the protected characteristic of sex as “biological sex” by changing the Equality Act. But Ms Badenoch was tied in knots when she was asked what kind of paperwork people would need to show to use single-sex spaces under the plans.
She said she was being asked about “very technical scenarios” and insisted “this is not a paperwork issue” when challenged repeatedly whether this would mean only an original birth certificate would be accepted. Ms Badenoch told the Today programme: “The paperwork that explains what your legal sex is is your birth certificate.”
Ms Badenoch, who is also the Business Secretary, was pressed on which version of a birth certificate this means, given that it can be amended after someone’s gender change has been legally recognised. Ms Badenoch replied: “What you are describing is a hypothetical scenario, assuming that when people go into rape crisis centres they’re bringing in birth certificates, they’re bringing in gender recognition certificates.
“What is happening at the moment is that people come to the centres and they are visibly of a different sex. You don’t always need your birth certificate when you’re going to the toilet and so on and so forth. So the point I’m making is about the everyday scenarios people will be experiencing.”
She continued: “I really appreciate that you’re trying to get into very technical scenarios. I have said that your birth certificate is the one that records your biological sex… This is not a paperwork issue. This is a practical issue.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is vowing to amend equality laws to prevent “confusion” on sex and gender. The Tories claim the change in the law will make it simpler for service providers for women and girls, such as those running sessions for domestic abuse victims, to prevent biological males from taking part.
The party says the proposed change to the law will not remove the existing and continuing protections against discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment provided by the Equality Act. Mr Sunak said: “The safety of women and girls is too important to allow the current confusion around definitions of sex and gender to persist. The Conservatives believe that making this change in law will enhance protections in a way that respects the privacy and dignity of everyone in society.”
Ms Badenoch has spoken frequently in the Commons on the issue and said the change in the law needs to occur because public bodies are now acting out of “fear of being accused of transphobia”. In an article for the Times, she said a woman had written to her about two incidents of being followed into a women’s toilet by men presenting as women.
“Whether it is rapists being housed in women’s prisons, or 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 and what to do — often for fear of being accused of transphobia,” she said.
She said “clarification is required” in the law explaining: “Not just to protect the privacy and dignity of women and girls, but also to protect those people with gender dysphoria for whom the law was set up to protect. These transpeople were going about their lives in peace, until predators started exploiting loopholes in the law by calling themselves trans with no evidence beyond their self-identification.”