Desperation is setting in. Ministers will stop at nothing, it seems, to delay approving guidance telling businesses how to bring their practices in line with the 2010 Equality Act. Today, the Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson, called for a “less public debate” after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) dared to suggest she get on with her job.

Phillipson claims ministers “require the regulator to provide us with the information” and that rather than becoming involved in any discourse, they should focus on helping with “the code of practice, together with other material that we require”. No one who welcomed the Supreme Court decision in April has asked for a public debate. What we want — and, indeed, expect — is for the EHRC to publish updated guidance reflecting the ruling that sex in the Act means biological sex. It always did, but activists had become used to telling everyone, including MPs and ministers, that it included men who claim to be women.

An astonishing number of people still believe that the gender activists are right. And there are few lobbies as terrifying to ministers as Labour MPs who insist that trans women are women. It feels as though the Government has wasted six months squirming, delaying and trying to avoid upsetting gender warriors on its own benches.

But the EHRC guidance has been reframed by opponents as “new gender rules” which put trans people at risk, even though it simply spells out how to adhere to a law that’s been in place for 15 years. Last week, it emerged that ministers have asked the EHRC to conduct a “regulatory impact assessment” to establish how much it will cost businesses to comply with its own guidance. This usually happens before legislation is passed, not a decade and a half later.

Such a move could delay approval of the guidance by a year, which is presumably the point. Last week — totally by coincidence, no doubt — dozens of Labour backbenchers wrote to Business Secretary Peter Kyle, expressing anxiety about how much it will cost. Since virtually no companies complained about the expense of making toilets and changing rooms “gender-neutral”, in defiance of the law, it seems perfectly reasonable that they should bear the cost of returning to compliance.

Unfortunately, this is what happens when cowardice meets fanaticism. The government is struggling, and it’s desperate to avoid any more rows with backbenchers. Keir Starmer’s refusal to confront the disproportionate influence of trans activists in Opposition has produced a party that’s now way out of line with public opinion.

Last month, shortly before becoming deputy leader of the Labour Party, Lucy Powell appeared to criticise the EHRC guidance. “I think we have got some of the language not right on this, and particularly around some of the guidance that’s coming forward,” she said. Other Labour MPs claim that the EHRC guidance will drive trans people out of public life, merely by telling people with male bodies to use men’s toilets.

This amounts to opposing not just the guidance but the Act itself, and activists should be honest about it. Their tactics are clear: delay, undermine, attack the credibility of the EHRC, and — if all else fails — demand a change in the law. That’s the sting in the tail of the request for a regulatory impact assessment, whose results could be used by trans-obsessed MPs to call for amendments or even repeal of the Equality Act.

In the meantime, the Government’s failure to act means that all sorts of organisations are acting illegally by allowing men to use women-only spaces. As a lawyer, Starmer must be aware that they’re opening themselves up to costly legal challenges, as well as denying women rights confirmed by the highest court in the land. A Labour equalities minister delaying approval of guidance to protect women’s rights is beyond parody.

---

Joan Smith is a novelist and columnist. She was previously Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, and is on the advisory group for Sex Matters. Her book Unfortunately, She Was A Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women was published in November 2024.

polblonde

---