Phillipson has erected a hurdle to application of the law, thus denying women validation of their rights.

[IwantToRetire]

"My experience of the Minister for Women and Equalities, when chair of the EHRC, was, at best, disinterest and disengagement. Nevertheless, while I was in post, the EHRC continued its interaction with respect, so there was no discernible “challenge” as far as we were aware, including after the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex of April 2025.

"To now read that women “deserve” single sex spaces or that Phillipson needs to go through the EHRC code “thoroughly and properly” is both patronising and disingenuous. She received the code in April 2025, and was fully aware that changes would be made to 3/13 sections impacted by the Supreme Court ruling. Those changes were submitted on 4 September. To have taken six months on circa 11 pages of text drafted by leading lawyers, implies a level of meticulousness not normally afforded to senior ministers, where decision-making is a prerequisite.

"The real reason for the delay is that Phillipson does not like this law as clarified by the Supreme Court. It is possible that she was awaiting the outcome of a Judicial Review in which she argued that female-only lavatories could continue to be seen as single-sex even if they permitted trans women to access them, contrary to the EHRC and Supreme Court position. That ruling is in, and EHRC won on all counts.

"This isn’t about “an approach” taken by myself or my board, as that has now been tested in in court. Phillipson has erected a hurdle to application of the law, thus denying women validation of their rights. That is there for all to see."

Kishwer Falkner, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, House of Lords

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2026/03/letter-of-the-week-phillipsons-final-hurdle

Can also be read at https://archive.is/hjDTz

(I think this was publised 4 March 2026)

Baroness Falkner's doing fantastic work under relentless attack. No idea why Phillipson's so devoted to male intruders on female spaces. She's clearly on an anti-female mission, but what's the point?

I believe the Baroness, Phillipson's the problem, she needs to go, I don't think we'll get any changes until she's replaced. I'm not confident will get changes then, but we definitely won't while Phillipson's in position.

Can she be held personally responsible? Sued?

I’m so relieved and grateful that specific people like the baroness are on the case. It comforts me to know that people with means and opportunity are pulling the threads. So hooray for the Baroness, Posie, JKR, Maya, Helen Joyce etc, and to the women here who meticulously follow, archive, log and highlight for the rest of us.
Gender Identity is gradually being unravelled.

Ministerial personal vendettas or moral missions should be dealt with by party leadership by promptly moving them out from their post.

in the news it’s saying WRT anti semitism and now Islamophobia today that ‘if you can’t name it you can’t begin to tackle it’. I agree with that.

OK, let’s apply that to women then. Ministers like this one don’t allow us to even name ourselves. I know lots of here don’t agree with there being a misogyny hate crime in low but I do. I’m sick of the legal invisibility of the rampant misogyny in society- of which this kind of interpretation of identity politics is a glaring and dangerous example for women’s rights.

why is this ministerial overreach not more widely in the news? I thought we all are being told the tide has turned?

Thanks for this. Baroness Falkner is amazing on this. Shame on Labour for stalling.

Baroness Falkner is brilliant. So glad she was in that position- it really moved the dial and the TRAs know it.

Reply got detached - this is a reply to GarlicFound:

what's the point?

Political survival in the short term and, if she survives, ambition in the the longer term, ie. not losing her foothold and sliding back down the greasy pole.

IMHO the unions, civil service and trans-allies on the back benches would seek revenge by working to discredit her, get her out of cabinet and out of Parliament altogether if they could get her de-selected by her CLP.

She must know that she can't sit on the fence forever. So maybe she is waiting for an equivalent of an "Adam Graham/Isla Bryson moment" to break the impasse and enable her to move forward without scuppering her political career?

At present I think we need to be concerned with who might replace her, now that the Labour party backbenchers are tring to force the party further to the Left.
I think people under-estimate how big is the commitment amongst many in the Labour party to the concept of TWAW.

Aye, its a bargaining chip. She probably has two written and is ready to present whichever one will be most useful to her at a crucial moment.

💯

Is there a precedent for a Government defying the Supreme Court?

I don't know how big a deal it would be. At the level of a "constitutional crisis"?

Just wondering if we are on the same sort of Trans Democracy-Destruction Train that ploughed into the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon north of the Border?

The government should replace her with Tonia Antoniazzi MP who is good on this issue and has stuck her neck out for women for a long time now. (Thank you Tonia)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cz6d7jxg886o

This is really very very dodgy behaviour in terms of process. IANAL but maybe legally dodgy too? Bridget Phillipson appears to be treating EHRC (which is an arms length body to government), as through they are her own government department, which is legally very much not the case.

EHRC and others like them are funded by central government to act with independence, (because we need them to exist and do their function stated by law without fear or favour) but they specifically are legally set up by Parliament to operate independently in their own area of deep legal specialism.

The arms length bodies have their own legal board of governors and they report in detail directly to Parliament as a whole. It’s very disturbing and irregular that the Chief Executive of EHRC is having to go public to protest after highly interfering and obstructive and delaying behaviour by a government Minister.

Please can we write to our MPs about this?
Be great if this could be raised in Parliament to try to get a date committed to for publication and to show Philipson and Starmer that people are watching this appalling behaviour. Interference and obstruction of Arms length bodies by ministers should also be of interest to the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee who could be copied in too.

It’s a really bad precedent against proper ministerial conduct if they let this stand.

I’m actually glad Baroness Falkner is now out of there and free to say what’s really going on. It’s a huge huge thing that she’s spoken up like this publicly.

What do we know of the current EHRC chair, board, direction of travel?

Akua Reindorf seems to really rate her, she said how great she was in a podcast the other day.

The government should replace her with Tonia Antoniazzi MP

She is fantastic and would not have put up with any truck from unions or civil servants! The Code of Practice would have been done and dusted pronto!