PM: ‘Biological sex is fundamentally important’

Rishi Sunak has emphasised that biological sex is “fundamentally important” in protecting single-sex spaces, women’s sports, and female health.

In an interview with Conservative Home editor Paul Goodman, the Prime Minister made it clear that while society should treat gender-confused people with compassion, women do not have male genitalia.

Earlier this month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) told the Government that ‘sex’ should be clearly defined as biological sex under the Equality Act.

‘Vital’

Mr Sunak stated that while the Government is considering the EHRC’s advice, “a general kind of operating principle for me is that biological sex is vitally, fundamentally important to these questions, we can’t forget that.

“And that’s why we need to make sure particularly when it comes to women’s health, women’s sports or indeed spaces that we’re protecting those rights in those places.”

Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has asked the EHRC for advice on amending the current definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010, in light of “increasing contestation of how the term sex is understood”.

In response, EHRC’s Chairwoman Baroness Falkner of Margravine said that redefining ‘sex’ to mean biological sex would make it simpler for service providers “to make a women’s-only ward a space for biological women” and for organisers of women’s sport to exclude men who identify as women.

Scotland

Last week, the Scottish Government announced that it would challenge Westminster’s decision to block its ‘sex-swap’ Bill in court, despite concerns over the legislation’s impact on women.

In January, the UK Government vetoed Holyrood’s gender self-ID Bill on constitutional grounds, given its impact on wider equalities legislation.

Rishi Sunak defended his Government’s position, saying “it was a decision that we made after taking very careful and considered advice.”

The Prime Minister explained that Westminster had “concerns about how Scotland’s changes to the gender recognition act would interact with reserved powers, about the operation of the Equalities Act, the protection of women elsewhere in the UK as well.”