A group of Labour members have begun legal action over proposed changes to the party’s policy on the formal inclusion of self-identifying trans women on all-women shortlists.

The challenge comes after it emerged last week that the equalities committee of Labour’s ruling body proposed clarifying that all-women shortlists and women’s reserved places were open to self-defining women.

In a legal letter seen by the Guardian a group of Labour women, including community coordinator and campaigner Pilgrim Tucker and activist Jennifer James, have written to the party to demand clarification on its policy to establish whether it was in breach of the Equality and Gender Recognition acts. Last year the government said it would consult on reforming the Gender Recognition Act, to allow transgender people to self-declare their gender. Under current law, anyone wishing to transition must demonstrate they have lived as that gender for two years.

James has raised £26,000 to bankroll a potential legal challenge; she was suspended from the Labour party in January after accusations of transphobia following online comments. After her suspension James tweeted: “I’ve been suspended from the Labour Party for saying women don’t have dicks.”

Two Flames (@msjenniferjames) Comrades. We are raising money to Keep All-Women Shortlists Female! We intend to mount a legal challenge to @UKLabour over this. Click to Donate: https://t.co/Fp37zIQdwq

Tucker said debate around the issue of self-identification had become very polarised, with reasonable debate stifled.

“This [legal action] is about abiding by current equalities legislation, not getting ahead of the law,” she said. “But this is a part of a much wider issue. There are risks and there are important discussions to be had before any changes to the Equalities Act and the Gender Recognition Act. This has to be an educated, informed decision, not one that has been taken out of heightened emotion or an unwillingness to hurt people’s feelings.”

Opposition to the proposed changes gathered momentum this week, with two meetings held by groups who oppose changes to the Gender Recognition Act which would allow transpeople to change legal gender without a medical assessment. But some campaigners were accused of transphobia, after speakers at a meeting in the houses of parliament were accused of using derogatory language and consistently misgendering trans women.

Trans rights charities and campaigners were fiercely critical of comments reportedly made at a meeting on the issue of self-identification on Wednesday, which was hosted in the houses of parliament by rightwing MP David Davies after Millwall football club pulled out of hosting the event, following pressure from transrights campaigners.

Pink News reported that at the event, organised by We Need To Talk, speaker Sheila Jeffreys, an Australian academic, said: “When men claim to be women…and parasitically occupy the bodies of the oppressed, they speak for the oppressed.” It also reported that trans women were repeatedly referred to as men, with male pronouns used. Attendees tweeted about the event using the hashtag War On Women. A separate speaker Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, has been questioned by police about tweets sent to the chief executive of Mermaids, a charity supporting transgender children.

Tucker said that if the report was accurate, the comments were “not helpful” and said the women launching the legal challenge insisted on a “comradely, respectful level of debate”.

Jamie Pallas, of trans rights organisation Gendered Intelligence said the language used at the meeting was harassment and discrimination under the Equality Act, adding that accusations that trans activists were silencing debate was unfounded. “Giving a platform for hate speech is not OK. I don’t see how it is encouraging a calm reasoned debate,” he said. “I think it is actually about shutting down trans voices. “There should be room for education and learning, but that is a different thing than allowing destructive and undermining panels like this to take place.”



Community organiser Lucy McDonagh, who attended the event, said she had been labelled a bigot for asking questions about proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. “Literally just asking a question if these changes could potentially affect women’s safe spaces is deemed as being transphobic. So lots of women, especially working class women, are scared to ask,” she said. “We have had to access this particular space because no one else has allowed us to speak about it. We are trying to find out about law, and we are trying to find out why women have been cut out of the conversation that statistically most affects them.”

A second meeting, in Birmingham, was organised on Thursday by Woman’s Place UK , which is hosting a series of events around the country and describes itself as enabling “proper debate and discussion on sex, gender and the GRA”.



Writer and artist Shon Faye said the meetings disproved the accusation that women were being silenced. She said groups opposed to changes around self-identification often resorted to inaccurate information and demands for debate often descended into transphobic abuse. Spaces that are currently segregated by sex, including women’s prisons and refuges, would still be able to make risk assessments and exclude potentially dangerous individuals, she argued. “If there is evidence that a person is a potential risk it is appropriate to exclude them,” she said. “What it is not appropriate to do is exclude someone for identifying as trans.”

She added that she agreed there was a need to protect vulnerable women, but that should also include vulnerable trans women who suffered “disproportionate transphobic violence and misogynistic violence at the hands of men.”

A Labour spokeswoman said all-women shortlists had always been open to all women, including self-identifying trans women.

“At the NEC’s last meeting it was agreed that the party would consult with stakeholders about the wording of a statement which clearly sets out and explains this policy,” she said. “This consultation is ongoing. The statement will be brought to the NEC once the consultation has concluded.”



Labour said it was committed to updating the Gender Recognition Act in line with the principles of self-declaration “to ensure it provides proper protection for trans people from discrimination”.