Balancing rights

Baroness Falkner, a former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate, has been a highly successful chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. When she was appointed, some might have mistaken her for yet another member of the centre-left establishment, awarded a job in the quangocracy because she held reliably “progressive” views. Instead, her time at the head of the EHRC has been quietly devastating for activists promoting radical gender ideology.

Now she is said to be the victim of a witch hunt by staff at the quango. They stand accused of mounting a campaign against her, after she backed changes to the 2010 Equality Act to safeguard the rights of biological women in single-sex spaces. They are reported to have compiled a dossier that includes more than 40 complaints.

The EHRC under her leadership has been attacked for supposed “transphobia”. This is absurd. The body has merely sought a better balance between the rights of biological women and trans people. Allowing biological men into women’s lavatories, for example, poses a risk to women’s safety. It is a sign of how extreme some gender ideologues are that they refuse to accept this.

The Tories have a dreadful record at appointing people sympathetic to mainstream Conservative views to public bodies. They have a similarly poor record in defending the small number who do get jobs from the hostility of the Left-wing media and other public sector staff. Pushing back against the most outlandish demands of the gender lobby has been one of this Government’s few incontrovertible achievements. It would be a shame if that progress were jeopardised.