Trans activist offers excellent response to Tory plan to alter equality legal guidelines

A trans activist has told the Tories to look at the threat of their own politicians instead of targeting trans women.

Charlie Craggs hit out at a divisive Tory plan to change equality laws to stop trans women accessing single-sex spaces. She posted a screenshot of herself on ITV news with a caption on Instagram highlighting the number of Conservatives accused of sexual assault.

She wrote: “The Tories say they’re changing the legal definition of what a woman is to ‘protect women and girls’ from trans women but there’s more Tory MPs with sexual assault charges against then than trans women, so if they want to protect women and girls maybe they should start there. Trans women are not a threat, the Tories are.”

Rishi Sunak is facing a backlash from people in his own party as well as campaigners over his policy on single-sex spaces. The PM has been accused of “stoking culture wars” by starting a row over amending equality laws.

The Conservatives have pledged to change the Equality Act to define the protected characteristic of sex as “biological sex”. They claim the change 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 Conservative Party has faced several sleaze scandals in recent times. Tory Crispin Blunt was arrested over an allegation of rape and possession of drugs in October. He has said he would cooperate with the investigation and was confident he would not be charged.

Charlie Elphicke, who was the MP for Dover, was sentenced to a two-year prison term in 2020 on three counts of sexual assault against two women. Another Conservative , who cannot be named, was arrested in May 2022 on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault and rape. He has not been charged.

Tory Peter Bone was suspended from Parliament for six weeks after flashing an aide and leaving him feeling like a “broken shell” after a long campaign of alleged bullying. Former Tory Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher was forced to resign after losing an appeal against a Commons suspension for groping two men.

Former MP Imran Ahmad Khan was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. He was jailed for 18 months after being convicted of groping the teenager at a party in 2008.

The Home Office has not released figures on sexual assault by trans people.

Responding to Mr Sunak’s new policy, former Tory Minister Dehenna Davison told Newsnight trans issues were being used as a “political football” by her party. “I think regrettably the debate around trans issues right now seems to be used as some kind of political football for this mythical culture war that the Conservative Party seems to be fighting,” she said.

“I don’t know why we’re fighting it, I don’t know who we are fighting… I don’t know why this is even something that we need to be focussing on.”

The Tory Reform Group, a band of moderate Tories, warned: “The Conservative Party has to think very carefully about the type of campaign it wants to run, and the longer term impact of stoking culture wars. It is clear that voters are rejecting the politics of division. We must not run on ‘wedge issues’ for a narrow core voter base alone.”

Former Tory MP Eliot Colburn, who is standing to be an MP again, said “here we go again” as he hit out at the official Conservative party which tweeted: “We know what a woman is. Keir Starmer doesn’t.” Mr Sunak insisted the party was handling the matter “sensitively” when confronted with the tweet.

Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey on Monday said the Equality Act didn’t need changing as it “already provides protections for single-sex spaces for biological women”. “This, to be honest, is a distraction from the election campaign, where most people want to hear why the cost-of-living pressures are so great, what the Tories are going to do, and what Labour is going to do, to try and help make life more affordable and Britain better,” he told Times Radio.

He said the Equality Act “already provides a definition of a woman, and sex and gender are different”, adding: “What is needed is clearer guidance for service providers, from the NHS to sports bodies, and in prisons, on what single-sex exemptions need to be, and the best way to be able to do that is in guidance, not primary legislation.”

Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said she did not believe there was a demand or a need to “unpick” equality laws. “I think we need to see this announcement for what it is, and I do think this is a cynical distraction form their failings on so many issues, like the economy, like the cost-of-living crisis, like the NHS, like social care, like protecting our local environment and tackling the issue of raw sewage discharge,” she told LBC News radio. “I think the Government is failing on so many counts – time and again we have seen how it tries to wage these phony culture wars.”

Asked by broadcasters if his party was stoking culture wars, Mr Sunak said: “No. It builds on our track record of treating these issues sensitively and with compassion, as of course we should, but ensuring that our laws are right, our guidance is right to protect the safety and security of women and girls and the wellbeing of our children. And I think that’s paramount in all of our minds.”