Labour trans row: Javid says Sir Keir is denying medical facts

Health Secretary criticises Sir Keir for declaring that it is wrong to state ‘only women have a cervix’

‘Any Labour Party member who abuses Rosie Duffield will face our formal complaints procedure and I expect a robust response’

THE Health Secretary has accused Sir Keir Starmer of a “total denial of scientific fact” after the Labour leader claimed it is wrong to say only women have a cervix.

Sir Keir was forced to intervene on a debate over transgender rights overshadowing this year’s party conference, after MP Rosie Duffield said his position needed clarification.

Yesterday he said Ms Duffield, who is not attending the conference in Brighton after receiving threats and being branded transphobic, was wrong to say “only women have a cervix”.

He called for a “mature and respectful debate” around trans rights, as he warned that trans individuals are among the “most marginalised and abused communities”.

But Sajid Javid criticised Sir Keir’s position, saying it was a “total denial of scientific fact”, adding: “And he wants to run the NHS!” Ms Duffield has opposed people who were born male but self-identify as trans having access to female areas in domestic violence refuges, school toilets and prisons.

The Canterbury MP also queried being called a “transphobe” for “knowing that only women have a cervix”.

Sir Keir declined to call her remarks transphobic but did say: “It is something that shouldn’t be said. It is not right. I spoke to Rosie earlier this week and told her conference is a safe place for her to come.

“We do everybody a disservice when we reduce what is a really important issue to these exchanges on particular things that are said.”

Sir Keir added: “Wherever we’ve got to on the law, we need to go further.”

Angela Rayner, Sir Keir’s deputy, said it was a “concern” that Ms Duffield felt unable to attend the conference

Ms Rayner added: “What I have been shocked by, especially my female colleagues – and that’s Conservative female MPS as well – is the level of misogynist abuse they get.”

She promised “robust” action against any Labour member who targets Ms Duffield: “Rosie deserves our full support and protection against that and she would get that. If she had come to conference, we would have risk-assessed and made sure that she had every bit of support that she needed to be here.

“Anybody who abuses Rosie Duffield who is a member of the Labour Party would go through our formal complaints procedure and I would expect a robust response on it.”

Ms Duffield said she had met Sir Keir to discuss her concerns before the conference but had decided not to attend in case her presence detracted from the wider issues facing the party.

Labour has pledged to reform the Gender Recognition Act to allow transgender people to self-identify with a gender different to that of their birth.

The party also says it will uphold separate legislation that makes provision for single-sex spaces in some instances.