No More Excuses
Labour Women’s Declaration speaks on behalf of the clear majority of Labour members and voters who, according to all polls, support the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex.
We welcome the news that the updated EHRC Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations is finally been laid before Parliament and we commend the Secretary of State for this action.
There can now be no more excuses from public bodies, including government departments, that they are “waiting for the guidance”.
We will study the Code in detail. However, regardless of the wording of the guidance, the law is the law and it is the Supreme Court’s ruling which has to be complied with.
Building on the complete clarity of the ruling, this new guidance should give service providers an even clearer understanding of the law – as it has always been – that single sex services, spaces and associations can operate lawfully on the basis of sex, not GRC possession or gender identity. Service providers and duty bearers, including government-run organisations such as the Civil Service and NHS, must immediately update their policies and clearly set this out.
Whilst today brings good news, questions remain as to how, for so many years, a fundamentally incorrect interpretation of the law was included in the EHRC Code published in 2011, and how it was embraced by all the institutions of state and public life, such as the police, courts, NHS, education services, military forces, trade unions, industry and Civil Service.
Labour Women’s Declaration will continue to hold our Labour government to account on sex-based rights and to campaign against any attempt to row back on the progress that has been made by the clarity of the Supreme Court ruling.
Today will be of particular resonance for lesbian women for whom the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex attraction was deeply significant. Misinterpretation of the law led to the erasure of lesbian spaces, attacks on freedom of association and accusations of bigotry towards lesbian women for refusing to describe trans-identified men as lesbians. The betrayal of the lesbian community by what came to be known as ‘Stonewall law’ has been shameful.
We now expect the government and EHRC to get tough with any service providers who claim the law does not apply to them. Let us see an end to individual women having to pursue costly litigation and a return to a Labour and trade union movement that demonstrates in deeds not words that they are on the side of women everywhere.
The Equality Act is landmark Labour legislation that protects all of us. Those protections are under attack by Reform who wish to repeal the Act altogether, putting women’s pregnancy and maternity rights at risk, as well the rights of those covered by all the protected characteristics including gender reassignment and same-sex sexual orientation.
Our fringe meeting on 27th Sept at the Labour Conference in Liverpool will feature speakers explaining why a progressive party should challenge the regressive sexist stereotypes of gender ideology, and embrace a materialist feminist politics which celebrates gender non-conformity.
To be honest, we cannot believe we are still having to explain this. Women in the UK expect women-only facilities and services to be precisely that. It is not complicated. The Supreme Court ruling clarified the Equality Act as it has always been; it’s time for the rest of society to catch up.
May 21 2026
