Sir Keir Starmer has said trans rights cannot override women’s rights in an apparent change of tone as he tries to clarify his position.
The Labour leader insisted if his party won the next general election there would be no “rolling back” of women’s rights.
Sir Keir has faced criticism from feminist groups and Labour MP Rosie Duffield who claimed the party has a “woman problem”.
Two years ago, he committed to introduce “self-declaration” for trans people.
Party strategists last month told Sky News Sir Keir would lose the general election campaign “on day one” unless he shifted his position on transgender rights.
Advisers have been telling the Labour leader since late 2021 to “deal with” the issue and explain to voters that “self-ID is not going to happen”.
His position has appeared to evolve over the past months, after Labour MSPs were whipped to vote last year for the gender bill in Scotland that makes it easier for people to change gender.
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Talking about women’s rights, Sir Keir told the Sunday Times: “I think there is a fear that somehow there could be the rolling back of some of the things that have been won.
“There are still many battles that need to go ahead for women and I don’t think we should roll anything back.”
Sir Keir also said 99.9% of women “of course haven’t got a penis” as he was asked about his stance on whether a person with a penis can be a woman.
He added that there is a “very small number” of people who identify as a different gender to the one they were born with as he called for an end to a “toxic divide” over trans issues.
“They need legal support and a framework. Most people don’t disagree with that, and that’s the framework within which we ought to look at these issues,” he said.
“But simply turning it into a toxic divide advances the cause of no one – the cause of women or those that don’t identify with the gender that they were born into.”
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In early March, Harry Potter author JK Rowling accused Sir Keir of misrepresenting equalities law after he said “trans women are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law”.
But at the end of March, he said: “I think that if we reflect on what’s happened in Scotland, the lesson I take from that is that if you’re going to make reforms, you have to carry the public with you.
“And I think that’s a very important message, and I think that’s why it’s clear that in Scotland there should be a reset of the situation.”
In his latest comments, he also told the Sunday Times he would “want to know” if his children were identifying as trans after a report found 39 out of 140 English secondary schools were “reliably informing” parents when pupils identified as trans or questioned their gender.
He said: “Look, of course I’d want to know. I say that as a parent. I would want to know and I think the vast majority of parents would want to know.
“That’s why we have to have national guidance on it and they should try to make it cross-party, because it’s not helpful to parents or schools to have this as just a toxic divide when what’s needed is practical, common sense advice.”
