Analysis Rush for closure leaves trans people in limbo

After the supreme court delivered its ruling on gender recognition last month, the government verdict from Keir Starmer downwards was unanimous: this had brought welcome "clarity" to a vexed debate and everyone could now move forward.

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Nearly six weeks on and a rising number of Labour MPs, not to mention campaigners and human rights groups, are much less sure. A parliamentary debate last week saw a series of backbenchers question how the ruling that "woman" in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman, and the subsequent advice from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that in the light of this, transgender people should not be allowed to use toilets of the gender they live as, squares with the rights of trans constituents.

One senior Labour MP, Meg Hillier, highlighted the plight of a constituent who had long lived as a woman, used women's changing rooms in her job with the ambulance service, and now feared being forced to tell colleagues she was trans. The supreme court ruling, Hillier argued, "creates a real mess that needs sorting out".