Lib Dem conference big vote on supporting women's rights tomorrow

[fromorbit]

Vote tomorrow at the conference with major implications

Lib Dem conference ‘descends into culture wars’ with trans vote
Party wrong to debate pro-trans proposals that will ‘be weaponised against us’, say campaigners

Published 20 September 2026 6:45pm BST
The Liberal Democrats have been accused of “taking a sledgehammer to women’s rights” by debating proposals for more “inclusive” rules on single-sex spaces.
The party will vote on Monday on a proposal to scrap new guidance banning transgender women, who are born male, from female toilets and changing rooms at its annual conference.
The plans are set out in an emergency motion selected by Lib Dem members, which will also force the party to take a firm stance on whether “trans women are women”.
Liberal Voice for Women, a Lib Dem group campaigning for sex-based rights, warned the policy would be pushed through by a conference “stacked with activists” and force the party “back into the culture wars”.
The backlash threatens to embroil the Lib Dem conference in a transgender row for a second year running, despite Sir Ed Davey insisting on Saturday that he led “the most united party in British politics”.
https://archive.is/s25Xm

Crazy isn’t it.

Voted LibDem for years, from my first election. Was cautiously enthusiastic about the 2010 coalition. What an utterly ludicrous hill they have chosen for their death throes.

Their positioning is all off. If they wanted to attract the moderate, sensible, centrist vote, they would steer clear of the gender stuff. As it it, the Greens will hoover up all the trans enthusiasts and the LDs will be left with egg on their faces.

Apparently the vote will be at 5.10 pm

More coverage.

How long till Davey works out he can either back the judgement. which he said again he did on Today, or say the equality act needs changing - the guidance in fact is just following the law which the Supreme Court made clear.

He can't do both logically. :

Lib Dems embroiled in new trans rights row as leader Ed Davey says he backs conference vote on scrapping protection for women-only spaces

Lib Dem activists warned that the vote was 'a Trojan horse for removing women’s rights to single-sex spaces'.

But asked if he wanted the motion to pass, Sir Ed told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I do – I'll be voting for it if I'm in the hall.'

He added: 'The Supreme Court created something that we didn't expect.
'We've been working out how to make sure it's implemented properly and we've been waiting for this guidance – it's taken a long time.
'And we think, talking to businesses, they don't think it's clear enough or helpful enough. So we're responding to what other people are saying.'
But his support prompted a backlash from women's rights campaigners.

Dr Zoe Hollowood, who chairs the campaign group Liberal Voice for Women, said: 'It seems Ed plans to abandon the commitment he made to women in our 2024 manifesto that the party would uphold the Equality Act.
'The theme for this conference is ''We care, we fight''. What women will take from his support for the motion is that Ed does not care about our rights and is wholly unwilling to fight for them.
'This motion is a Trojan horse for removing women’s rights to single-sex spaces.
'Ed Davey told the BBC that the guidance supporting the Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex in the Equality Act lacks clarity and is not fit for purpose.
'The issue is not that the guidance is unclear - it is very clear. The issue is that organisations who want loopholes to allow some males into female spaces cannot find them.'

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16147987/Lib-Dems-trans-rights-row-Ed-Davey.html?

Sarah Ludford 🇬🇧 🇮🇪🇪🇺 🇺🇦

EdwardJDavey repeated on r4today that ‘we accept the SC judgment’.
He said he’s voting for motion cos it’s only about the guidance being ‘unclear & not fit for purpose’. But in asserting ’TWAW’ the motion is directly contrary to SC judgment which affirmed sex is biological.

If women are not prevented from speaking they point out the flaws in the motion which is anti women's rights. Expect fireworks previous times the TAs have attempted to stop anyone supporting reality from speaking.

The debate on the 2026 motion will take place at around 5.10pm on Monday, the night before Sir Ed’s speech.

WATCH LIVE:

If agreed, it would become party policy and commit the Lib Dems to lobbying for a new version of the EHRC guidance that is “inclusive, workable and ensures everybody can safely access public facilities and providers are protected from legal risk”

So they want a new version of the EHRC guidance that doesn't comply with the law?

'I do – I'll be voting for it if I'm in the hall.'

Full on commitment from Sir Ed

Agree. A platitude is not legislation. They have had years to come up with alternative policies and now they need to explain what they are.

😂

For Women Scotland

5h
Idiotic from EdwardJDavey. He accepts the law, but not the implementation of the law.

This is like saying he understands it's against the law to murder but he wants guidance that explains how to get away with it!

Apparently the vote will happen just before his speech.

Wonder if he will conveniently be doing some last minute writing changes so he can't attend.

He might find he falls off something into a nearby body of water and can't make the vote.

He said he’s voting for motion cos it’s only about the guidance being ‘unclear & not fit for purpose’.

It's fit for the purpose of the law, which is what it's supposed to be, so what's to vote on Ed.

The chances of anyone getting to speak against the motion are very slim going by past experience. I wonder if he'll have anything to say about that, if he's in the hall of course.

He does like the big entrance, so he may still be twatting about on his jetski when the vote is held

I suspect he wants to hoverboard into there at the last minute.

And then fall off for the LOLs.

LDs clearly think the batshit greens are a bigger threat than the Tories. Which is crazy because round here they took seats because the Tories lurched right, not because the LDs lost the run of themselves.

Or maybe they actually believe this bollocks

Perhaps he will literally have a rocket up his jacksie

Oh yes, a flare like that idiotic football fan a few years ago.

Liberal Democrats ought to be a party that deomstrate to the world how to respect and uphold the rights of trans people to live their lives with their acquired gender in all the circumstances where sex is irrelevant (most of the time) and have access to a unisex option where sex is important, whilst also respecting the rights of others to freedom of belief which includes the right to believe that sex is a factual and biological status that cannot be changed, and upholding that when sex is actually important it does mean sex not gender. Within that framework it is perfectly possible for people who believe different things to coexist. Liberal politics has to be open to a range of opinions otherwise it is illiberal and authoritarian - insisting that failure to believe wholeheartedly that TWAW is unacceptable is not a Liberal position.

Asking for 'quick wins' currently.

Let the law stand as it is and protect women's rights, you pillocks!

Shuffling around. I think this is it now.

Emergency motion

'restoring trans rights'

Lucas North up speaking.

'trans and gender non conforming people' - holy wow, that's expanding the definition wildly!