Starmer silent on MPs leaked plot to defy Supreme Court's trans ruling - as campaigners face death threats
20 April 2025, 23:55
Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure to respond to the Supreme Court's transgender ruling after plans hatched by frontbench Labour MPs to defy the decision leaked.
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Protesters swarmed streets across the country to protest the ruling on Saturday, after the court declared that transgender women are not women in the eyes of the law.
Now, the Prime Minister is facing pressure to thwart a plot by ministers to defy the Supreme Court ruling.
On Wednesday, five judges ruled with the campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) after the group argued that single-sex spaces should only be accessible to people born female.
Labour MPs are set to discuss how to promote trans rights in the wake of the landmark judgment later this week - with leaked messages suggesting a plot is now afoot to take their demands to the equalities minister.
The plot, which surfaced in leaked WhatsApp messages, originate form a group chat involving various Labour MPs - including ministers Sir Chris Bryant and Dame Angela Eagle.
However, Starmer has remained silent on the issue - prompting calls for the PM to shut down the rebellion.
It comes amid escalating threats against the women vocally supporting the Supreme Court's ruling.
Despite the leak, it's claimed Downing Street has failed to punish the ministers involved.
The two prominent Labour MPs embroiled in the WhatsApp leak are said to have urged fellow MPs to convene and discuss the issue, according to The Telegraph.
It comes after the pair opposed comments made by Baroness Falkner, chief of the equality watchdog.
She had previously stated the Supreme Court ruling ensures trans women would be banned from women’s single-sex spaces.
But in the hours since the ruling, its emerged that key figures who celebrated the ruling are now facing death threats.
The three women at the forefront of FWS’s campaign revealed they have faced sustained online abuse since the ruling.
On Sunday, the shadow Home Secretary said that trans rights activists who vandalised statues during Westminster demonstrations are “simply criminals” and should face prosecution.
Police continue to urge the public to come forward with information after several statues were damaged during a trans rights protest in London on Saturday.
Thousands flocked to the streets of the capital on Saturday after the Supreme Court declared transgender women are not women in the eyes of the law.
Protesters defaced a statue of suffragette Millicent Fawcett as well as six others, the Metropolitan Police said on Sunday.
The iconic statue, located in London's Parliament Square - a location renowned for mass protest, depicts the suffragette grasping a banner reading:
"Courage calls to courage everywhere".The statue of the suffragette was scrawled with "f** rights" on the banner grasped by the figure.
