Susan Dalgety: A year on, why is Labour still stalling over Supreme Court’s historic gender ruling?

[IwantToRetire]

" ... Phillipson’s reluctance to follow usual procedure is puzzling. Typically, when a Supreme Court ruling only requires updated guidance and not new legislation – as in the case with the For Women Scotland (FWS) judgment which ruled that sex in law means biological sex – it should only take a few months for the judgment to be rolled out.

Even if Phillipson was to table the EHRC guidance in parliament on Monday, when MPs return from their Easter break, it would be another 40 sitting days before it became operational – one year and two months after the Supreme Court ruling. ... "

Article online at https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/a-year-on-why-is-labour-still-stalling-over-supreme-courts-historic-gender-ruling-6569925

Also at https://archive.is/egD6P

I hate Phillipson like no other, there I said it, feel better now.

I can sort of understand her reluctance, given that TRAs are quite vocal with their death threats etc to the women who dare to oppose them, but at the same time, it's her job to do this! If she can't hack it, she needs to step aside and pass it on to someone who will.

I think Labour are probably going to lose a lot of votes over this - even people who don't care about this issue will still see their failure to act as a weakness surely? And most voters don't need much of an excuse to switch their vote elsewhere.

My vote is already lost, thanks to Phillipson. I have voted Labour since 1979. I have written to my Labour, female, Muslim MP saying they will lose the votes of progressive women of my generation to this, having already lost Red Wall votes for failing to stop the boats and prioritise people born in Britain. It would be reasonable to expect the PM to address this and get Phillipson, Minister for half the population, to sort it. At risk of sounding like Rupert Lowe, in the private sector, there would be a deadline to work to. Here we have drift.

I don't believe she is scared, she has however allowed other women such as Baroness Faulkner to be bullied and threatened.

I feared Labour would pretend to support women pre election to get votes and BP proves it was the case.

A coalition of Greens/Libs& Labour would give away women's rights.

Labour was always going to fuck women over because they have been fucking women over for years. Starmer came out and condemned Rosie Duffield for talking about the fact that women have a cervix. He said it was something that shouldn't be said. They threw women under the bus and only stepped back when it was costing them votes. Now they are in power they can do what they like and ignore the law. I utterly despise the lot of them.

Scottish Labour have openly broken with Westminster on this see their manifesto which commits to supporting biological sex multiple times. This division is going to have a big effect going forward.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5516606-scottish-labour-manifesto-commits-to-single-sex-spaces

Just told a Labour party door canvasser that Bridget Philipson's treatment of this issue is shameful.

Their defense was that the other parties that have a chance in our council (Green & Libdem) are worse than they are on this issue. You couldn't make it up.

I'm not surprised by her inaction. Whichever side they end up choosing in the debate they are going to get a lot of hate and criticism, even within their own party. A lot of labour MPs are on the side of trans rights after all. It is kind of lose-lose. Safest thing (they think) is to do nothing.

I'm not justifying her inaction, only saying I understand why she has not tabled it. As a supporter on women's rights, I wish she would have published it in September when they got the guidance from the EHRC.

There’s no ‘side … in the debate’ here.

There’s a Supreme Court ruling on the law of the UK.

A lawmaker, a parliamentarian, is blatantly ignoring the law.

Don't mistake me. I'm not saying I agree with what they are doing, I am only explaining why it is I think they are doing this.

They are going to delay for as long as they can and hope that the political situation becomes a little bit calmer before they publish.

@ScarlettSunset I think Labour are probably going to lose a lot of votes over this - even people who don't care about this issue will still see their failure to act as a weakness surely? And most voters don't need much of an excuse to switch their vote elsewhere.

I wish I thought you were right, but I very much doubt it. Whenever there's some sort of 'which issues are most important to you' the trans option (just the fact that it's always framef that way irritates me and shows how far we are from winning) gets a derisory couple of percent. It doesn't shift votes, even those of women who are strongly GC. Too many people are herded into voting the way they've always done, every time, because they succumb to a 'keep out Ref/Con' tactical voting drive. Lab does this at every election and until very recently it has always worked - in E&W some of the borrowed leftie votes are now going to GPEW, which doesn't help women.

There are GC women on FWR who will be canvassing for Lab and the LDs.

Yep it was obvious pre GE and obvious now

I was honestly very optimistic immediately post FWS as I felt that BP was making all the right noises and that she agreed with the GC viewpoint. Not that that should matter as the law is clear and should not depend on politicians personal opinions.

It's weird to me that they're just totally silent on this issue. No revised guidelines but also no talk of amending the equality act. Are they hoping that people don't really care that much? And that there are no more of those pesky things that never happen?

She'll continue stalling after 7 May ... honestly, it's like a bad version of the cheese shop sketch. Next up "there was only one copy of the CoP and the dog's eaten it".

Unfortunately, yesterday's statement looks like a reaction to Baroness Faulkner's comments over the weekend. The longer this drags on, the weaker the PM looks. Has he spoken to her and told her to do her job and get this sorted?