I dont think there is anything in his statement to do with actually caring about women and / or the GRR.
This is just political tactics. On the one had he can be caring about young people (16 is too young) but on the other hand still accept self id.
And given Labour shocking losses in Scotland no way is he going to be part of any Government attempt to block a law passed by the Scottish Parliament.
So the "i'm just waiting for the legal advice" is so that he doesn't have to be seen to be behind any move to block the bill. Because he knows that, any attempt to do will bring out all sorts of people who dont care about gender recognition, let alone women's rights, who will get really angry about Westminister over ruling MSPs. (Not forgetting that this is something Welsh Assembly is looking and, and NI if they weren't in perpetual gridlock).
So for him its a win win.
Also, not just Starmer but all these people going on about safeguarding the EA.
The new scottish bill doesn't impact what is already written there about SSE
the problem is not just in Scotland, but all over the UK nobody bothers with or places any value on the SSEs.
So one very slight positive out of this is maybe a few people who dont listen to women, might now recognise that the SSE are too easily ignored.
The mere fact that women who are 50+% of the population are only allowed a few instances when their rights take precedent over a tiny, tiny minority, shows how low down the pecking order women are.
Logically the exemptions should have been those few occassion when a GRC took precedence over women's sex based rights. Like ... marriage and ... ???