Labour leader: ‘Gender recognition law does not go far enough’

Sir Keir Starmer has said that people in the UK should be able to change sex by ‘self-identification’.

Last month it was revealed that the Government is set to scrap plans to make it easier to change legal sex.

But the Labour leader told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the current law, which has built-in safeguards, “doesn’t go far enough”.

Rights

Starmer acknowledged that it was “complicated”, however he said: “Trans rights are human rights, the legislation we’ve got doesn’t go far enough.”

He called for a cross-party consensus to “improve the rights of the trans community”.

He also confirmed that he was committed to “the right to self-identify”.

Shelved

Last month, The Sunday Times reported that proposals to allow people to change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis would be shelved.

According to the newspaper, the details are contained in a leaked paper setting out the Government’s response to a public consultation on the Gender Recognition Act.

Proposals for people to ‘self-declare’ their legal sex will reportedly be abandoned and those wanting to change their birth certificate will still require a medical diagnosis.

Currently, anyone seeking to change sex must have lived for two years as a member of the opposite sex and have been medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria.