MPs Flip-flop on Trans as Election Nears

May 1, 2024

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said she will no longer use the phrase “trans women are women” as her understanding of the issue has “evolved”.

Keegan is on record using the phrase in 2020 in response to a question from a local LGBT forum, where she added that ‘trans women’ (i.e. men) should have equal access to women-only spaces.

But following the publication of the Cass Review, which found a lack of evidence to support how the NHS has dealt with gender-confused children – such as giving out puberty blockers – she told The Telegraph she had since “learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject”.

Labour’s Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary, has also responded to the report, saying he had been wrong to say “trans women are women, get over it”.

The belated arrival of common sense among leading politicians is hugely welcome, even if we might wonder why an awakening to the basic facts of biology took so long. We need politicians who are much more ready to speak the truth on key issues like transgenderism and marriage, not just parrot phrases they’ve picked up from lobbying organisations and focus groups.

But if Ms Keegan’s mea culpa is to mean anything it needs to be followed up with action, and sooner rather than later. As Lucy Marsh from the Family Education Trust says, Keegan’s “personal U-turn will make no difference while transgender lobby groups are free to groom children in schools”.

C4M supporters know there are only two immutable sexes. To say otherwise undermines real marriage and women’s rights. It’s about time the Government banned teaching such falsehoods to children.