Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer faced demands to apologise for abuse received by defenders of single-sex spaces in the trans debate. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged him to say sorry to former Labour MP Rosie Duffield for “hounding her out of the Labour party simply for telling the truth”.
During a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions – the first since the landmark Supreme ruling on the definition of women under equality law – she also pressed him to say he was wrong “when he said it was the law that trans women and women”.
Mrs Badenoch accused Sir Keir of failing to take responsibility for the treatment of Ms Duffield, who quit his party in September.
She said: “He practically kicked her out of his party – constructive dismissal.”
Describing her own experiences, the Tory leader said: “What about the abuse I faced from his MPs calling me a transphobe for supporting what the Supreme Court in his words… He hid for six days without commenting on the Supreme Court judgement.
“Why did it take him so long to respond? Isn’t it because was scared?”
The Labour leader turned his guns on Mrs Badenoch’s record as women and equalities minister, accusing her of doing “precisely nothing”.
He said: “What happened in the last decade? The use of mixed-sex wards in our NHS rose by 2,000%.”
Mrs Badenoch shot back: “When his Labour leader in Scotland was whipping his Labour MSPs to get male rapists into women’s prisons I stopped that Gender Recognition Bill; I helped commission the Cass Review; I replaced the guidance on single-sex toilets; I made sure that the puberty blockers issue was resolved while he was sitting there, cheering on the ideology that was taking away safe spaces.”
The Conservative leader challenged the Prime Minister to support the reappointment of Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
She said her role will be “critical to enforcing the Court’s judgement,” adding: “She has had to put up with relentless abuse, not just from his frontbench but from activists and ideologues”.
Sir Keir did not give a commitment and stepped up his attack on the Conservatives, raising the prospect of a “coalition between Reform and the Tories being formed behind her back”, saying this would lead to NHS charging.
Mrs Badenoch said the country had a choice between a “Conservative party that stood up for common sense and a Labour party that bent the knee to every passing fad”.
She added: “This is a question about moral courage, about doing the right thing even when it is difficult. And the truth is he doesn’t have the balls. “The Prime Minister only tells people what they want to hear… He twists in the wind.
“He cheered an ideology that denied safe spaces to women and girls because he thought it was cool to do so. He hounded a brave female MP out of his party for telling the truth he accepts now.”
Sir Keir claimed Tories do not believe Mrs Badenoch will lead them into the next election.