Lisa Nandy has admitted having a "pause for thought" before signing a pro-transgender pledge that has blown up into a Labour row.

The leadership hopeful said she decided to endorse the campaign because she agreed with the "sentiment" of "protecting trans rights".

But she warned that pledge cards had become "a real problem in British politics" and expressed regret about signing any.

Image: Lisa Nandy says banning organisations is not the answer

Questions over the candidates' stance on trans rights first emerged when Ms Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey backed a call for the party to expel any members who express "transphobic" views.

The unofficial Labour Campaign for Trans Rights was behind the move and singled out two groups specifically - Woman's Place UK and LGB Alliance.


Asked whether they should be kicked out of Labour, Ms Nandy told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "No. I have to say that was the part of the pledge that gave me pause for thought about whether to sign it.

"But I decided to sign it in the end because I think that the sentiment of the pledge about protecting trans rights and accepting that trans men are men and trans women are women is really important, especially at the moment with the level of discrimination that people face.

"I don't think that proscribing organisations is actually the right way to deal with disciplinary issues in the Labour Party.

"I think that the question for us is always about individual behaviour and it is right to recognise that there are women who have fought for generations in order to create safe spaces for women, who want to have a proper debate about how we best protect that in an era where we have recognised that trans men are men, trans women are women and we've got to do far more to protect trans women from harm as well."

Pushed on whether she regretted backing the campaign, Ms Nandy continued: "I think that pledge cards themselves have become a real problem in British politics.

"I think with hindsight if we could have all signed a pledge card at the beginning to say that we wouldn't sign pledge cards, we'd probably be in a much better place because one of the ways that pledge cards have been used is to pit people against one another.

"We've seen it happen with Brexit in recent years, we've seen it happen with the Israel-Palestine debate within the Labour Party in recent months, and it surely must be possible to have a better level of debate than this."