logical reality, it seemed, is acceptable when stated by a man (Blair); but not by a woman who has experienced its violent effects (Duffield).
Gender-critical feminists have plenty of reason to worry that Starmer still doesn’t grasp their concerns. Yet what women want in Labour most of all is an acknowledgement that they have been punished for stating facts which men – like Blair, like Starmer – now freely assert. This matters, even more than clarifying Labour’s still-muddled position on how to reform the gender recognition certificate or even its refusal to accept that the Equalities Act needs clarifying. (Despite Starmer’s denials, the terms of the Act for biological sex are sufficiently unclear that there is a judicial review working its way towards the Supreme Court.)
Women resent being ordered not to speak. This is why the actor David Tennant caused such anger this week when he said of Kemi Badenoch, the gender-critical equalities minister, “I just want her to shut up”. That is why this issue will continue to dog Starmer. He needs to apologise to Duffield, as Wes Streeting did so admirably last year, for his failures to respect her voice. That kind of apology might look like leadership.
There's something perverse about Starmer's unwillingness to apologise to Rosie Duffield. Does he really not understand the problem? – or, as I'm beginning to suspect, has he been warned by colleagues that he mustn't go there, on pain of rejection by all the trans-friendly Labour figures who've been so rude to her.
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