Daily Express

‘Labour still don’t know what a woman is!’

Anger at plan to let GPs sign off certificat­e for change of gender

LABOUR’S plan to make it easier to switch gender is self-identifica­tion in all but name, critics have claimed.

Sir Keir Starmer is looking at ending the need for two doctors and an expert panel to agree to a Gender Recognitio­n Certificat­e by allowing a family GP to sign it off instead.

Opponents said that shows Labour “still don’t know what a woman is” and warned the reforms go too far.

Downing Street said there was “no reason whatsoever” to relax current safeguards. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The process of changing one’s legal sex is a serious and meaningful undertakin­g.”

Tory MP Mark Jenkinson said: “This is ridiculous – it’s self-ID by another name. Labour still don’t know what a woman is.”

Labour last year ruled out introducin­g self-ID, whereby a person can officially change their gender without any medical assessment.

That came after an outcry when rapist Isla Bryson, who had changed gender while awaiting trial, was at first locked up in Scotland’s only women’s prison. Opponents fear self-ID might be abused by men who want to gain access to women-only areas. But under the proposals being considered, the GRC – which enables people to change the sex on their birth certificat­e – could be signed off by just one family doctor. Labour was warned GPs do not have the expertise or time to make such complex decisions, which will effectivel­y lead to them rubberstam­ping the patient’s claim that they are now a different gender. The Royal College of General Practition­ers said GPs were already under “considerab­le pressure”. Its chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne told The Times she would be concerned about “shifting sole responsibi­lity for signing gender recognitio­n certificat­es to GPs”. Tory deputy chair MP Jonathan Gullis said this would become “Tavistock 2.0” – a reference to the discredite­d clinic where many children were put on puberty blockers.A review by Dr Hilary Cass made 32 recommenda­tions on restructur­ing the medical system to address the way in which trans youths receive care.

Her report declared that an entire sector of medicine was operating on “shaky foundation­s”, with not enough evidence in support of prescribin­g hormones to under-18s to pause puberty or to transition.

Labour said proposals on reforming the GRC process were floated last year and would go out to consultati­on before being implemente­d.

Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, said: “Labour is the party of equality. We believe everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.

“We want to see the process for gender recognitio­n modernised, while protecting single-sex spaces for biological women. This means stripping out the futile and dehumanisi­ng parts of the process for obtaining a gender recognitio­n certificat­e, while retaining important safeguards.”