Over the past week or so, UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has tried to haul his party towards a saner and more credible position on the trans issue. In an interview with BBC presenter Nicky Campbell last week, Starmer ruled out introducing gender self-identification if Labour gets into power. More surprising still, he finally managed to give a straight answer to the question of ‘What is a woman?’. ‘A woman is an adult female’, he said.

This was a major u-turn for Starmer. The Labour leader had previously promised to introduce self-ID, which would allow people to change their legal sex without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. And he has previously claimed that women can have penises. His about-turn came shortly after shadow minister for women Anneliese Dodds tentatively suggested that Labour would protect single-sex spaces. And just like that, those in the Labour Party who have spent years insisting that ‘transwomen are women’ are now suddenly backing down.

Over the past week, it’s felt as if a spell has been lifted. Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, has also started to walk back her enthusiasm for trans ideology. Only last year, Creasy said that ‘some women were born with penises’. She also told the Telegraph, in no uncertain terms, that ‘I am somebody who would say that a transwoman is an adult human female’.

[I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. But I would hold their feet to the fire for however long it took to accomplish the obvious and ensure this backtrack becomes permanent. ~ Beege]