Kemi Badenoch claims PM ‘doesn’t have the balls’ to express own views
Kemi Badenoch labelled Sir Keir Starmer a “weather vane who twists in the wind” as she claimed he “doesn’t have the balls” to express his views on gender.
The Conservative Party leader stepped up her attack on the Prime Minister after also accusing Labour ministers of lying about support for female-only spaces following Sir Keir’s U-turn on his views about transgender women.
Sir Keir, who has previously said “trans women are women”, welcomed the Supreme Court ruling and said it is “time now to lower the temperature” of the transgender debate.
He later sidestepped a question over whether he would reappoint Baroness Falkner to chair the Equality and Human Rights Commission and tried to switch focus on to a possible deal between the Tories and Reform UK, claiming Mrs Badenoch has “lost control of her party”.
The Supreme Court confirmed the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
This means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch asked: “Does the Prime Minister now accept that when he said that it was the law that trans women were women, he was wrong?”
Sir Keir replied: “Let me be clear, I welcome the Supreme Court ruling on this issue. It brings clarity and it will give confidence to women and, of course, to service providers.
“The Equality and Human Rights Commission will now issue updated guidance, and it is important that that happens and that all service providers then act accordingly.
“This Government’s approach, and my approach, has been as follows: to support and implement the Supreme Court ruling, and we will, to continue to protect single-sex spaces based on biological sex, and we will, but also to ensure that trans people are treated with respect, and we will, and to ensure that everybody is given dignity in their everyday lives.
“I do think this is the time now to lower the temperature, to move forward, and to conduct this debate with the care and compassion that it deserves. And I think that should unite the whole House.”
Mrs Badenoch said Sir Keir “can’t bring himself to admit that he was wrong” and asked the Prime Minister to apologise to the “very brave” Independent MP Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) for “hounding her out of the Labour Party, simply for telling the truth”.
Sir Keir, in his reply, said: “My approach will be to support the ruling, to protect single-sex spaces and treat everybody with dignity and respect, and I believe there’s a consensus in this House and the country for that approach.”
He went on to accuse Mrs Badenoch of being a “spectator, not a leader” as he criticised her record in government, with the Tory leader defending her work and questioning why Labour MPs had challenged the Supreme Court ruling.
Mrs Badenoch went on to say: “He’s clearly so uncomfortable talking about this subject. This is a choice between a Conservative Party that stood up for common sense and a Labour Party that bent the knee to every passing fad.
“This is a question about moral courage, about doing the right thing even when it is difficult, and the truth is he doesn’t have the balls. The Prime Minister only tells people what they want to hear, he is a weather vane who twists in the wind.
“He cheered an ideology that denied safe spaces to women and girls because he thought it was cool to do so. He hounded a brave female MP out of his party for telling the truth he accepts now. And now he is hiding behind the Supreme Court judgment and isn’t that because he doesn’t know what he actually believes?”
The member for Clacton is going to do what he always does – eat the Tory party for breakfast
Sir Keir replied: “I can only assume that sounded better when she did it in the mirror earlier on. The truth is it doesn’t really matter what the Leader of the Opposition says because nobody believes, none of them thinks she’s going to lead them into the next election anyway.”
Sir Keir claimed Robert Jenrick was “away plotting” and said the shadow justice secretary would be “fighting over the bones of the Tory party” with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
He added on Mr Farage: “The member for Clacton is going to do what he always does – eat the Tory party for breakfast.”
Ahead of PMQs, Mrs Badenoch hit out at equalities minister Bridget Phillipson for previously saying that transgender women could use female toilets.
The Tory leader said: “Yesterday, the Education Secretary claimed she’d always backed single-sex spaces for women.
“She lied.
“This is footage from last year where she says the exact opposite: that men should use women’s spaces if they have a certificate.”
She posted a link to a Times Radio interview from 2024 in which Ms Phillipson suggested that transgender women who had gone through the formal gender recognition process could use ladies’ toilets.
Mrs Badenoch and Ms Phillipson clashed in the Commons on Tuesday evening on the issue, with the minister saying the Government will “continue as before, working to protect single-sex spaces based on biological sex, now with the added clarity of this ruling” while offering trans people “the dignity that too often they were denied by the party opposite”.
Elsewhere, Ms Duffield, who quit Labour last year, told LBC Radio that Sir Keir’s U-turn on whether a transgender woman is a woman showed he was a “manager rather than a leader”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman would not be drawn into saying whether he believed Ms Duffield was now owed an apology.
“The PM has welcomed the court judgment as a welcome step forward in providing clarity in this area. He does want this debate to be conducted with care and compassion, for everyone to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said when asked about an apology.
The spokesman also condemned death threats received by the women who took the case to the Supreme Court, describing this as “completely unacceptable”.
