Latest crop of Labour MPs 'lost it' on women's rights

Ex-head of equalities watchdog lashes out over confusion

- NICOLE WOOTTON-CANE, MILLIE COOKE

Labour has “completely abandoned” women’s rights and left women and transgender people in a “grey zone”, the former head of the equalities watchdog has claimed.

Kishwer Falkner, former chief of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), criticised the party for not publishing statutory guidance after a Supreme Court ruling in April judged that, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, the words “woman” and “sex” refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

She told The Times she believes Labour was traditionally the “party of feminism”, but that the current generation of Labour MPs has “lost it”.

Baroness Falkner, who was appointed under the previous Conservative government, said: “What really depresses me about the current state of the Labour Party is that they seem to have completely abandoned women’s rights. The traditional party of rights, in my 40 years in this country, was the Labour Party. The party of feminism. I was mentored by a former, very senior Labour woman, Shirley Williams.