Rowling insists Labour should apologise to MP investigated over ‘transphobic’ stance

JK ROWLING has said Labour must apologise to an MP who was investigated over allegations of transphobia, after a frontbencher said she agreed with the author’s stance on biological sex.

Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, last night said she supporte d JK Rowling’s vi ew t hat “biological sex is real and is immutable”, prompting Rowling to call on Labour to say sorry to Rosie Duffield.

The Canterbury MP was investigated by Labour over a complaint that she had been transphobic for liking a tweet by author Graham Linehan, 55, the Father Ted creator and now a gender-critical campaigner.

The party dropped its year-long investigation into Ms Duffield earlier in 2024 but she has spoken about feeling “isolated” among Labour MPS for her views. Those with gender-critical views believe that a person’s sex cannot be changed and are generally opposed to the idea that gender identity is more important than biological sex.

Following Ms Mahmood’s comments on Monday night, the Harry Potter author wrote on X: “If senior opposition figures agree with me that sex is real and immutable, I hope we’ll soon see an apology to [ Rosie Duffield], who believes exactly what I believe.”

Speaking after her first major speech in the role, the former barrister said: “Hashtag movements are sometimes used to shut down debate and often many women have had to go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify their rights to free speech. To clarify their right to believe that for example because you referenced JK Rowling, clarify their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with.

“But they shouldn’t be in the position of losing their jobs for having views that are perfectly legal, and that they are perfectly entitled to express.”

Ms Duffield said that Ms Mahmood’s intervention was “great news”, adding: “Perhaps there’ll be fewer investigations from now on into the only Labour MP cast aside for holding the same views?”

Ms Mahmood also said she believed that “in this era of social media, it’s been a real challenge for people to hold onto what we would consider are normal legal norms”.

The MP for Birmingham Ladywood said that “some of those issues are being resolved now” but she believed “it ’s taken us far too long to get to this point”.

‘If opposition figures agree with me that sex is real and immutable, I hope we’ll soon see an apology’