How Do the Parties’ Pledges on Sex and Gender Compare?

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (R) and shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson during a visit to Nursery Hill Primary School, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, on June 10, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

With issues around gender ideology continuing to fuel the culture wars in a way that few could have predicted a decade ago, what are the parties’ pledging to maintain single sex spaces, protect women’s rights, and safeguard children? And what are they promising to appease the lobbying groups demanding “transgender rights?”

Gender Change Certificates and Self-ID

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer drew widespread condemnation in 2021 when he rebuked his own MP Rosie Duffield for stating that “only women have a cervix,” claiming this was something that “should not be said.” He appears to have rowed back on this more recently, although he would not admit Ms. Duffield was right on a recent “Question Time” leaders’ special, stating instead that he “agrees with [Sir] Tony Blair that a man has a penis and a woman has a vagina.”

Not to be outdone by Sir Keir, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey once stated that “quite clearly,” some women can “have a penis.” His manifesto was met with a chorus of disapproval from women’s rights charities such as Sex Matters as well as the gay rights charity LGB Alliance, who are concerned that gay or gender non-conforming young people are being shoe-horned into believing they are “trans.”

The Labour and Lib Dem manifestos both pledge to “simplify” the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate for those who try to present as the opposite sex.

Sir Keir said: “We will modernise, simplify, and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law to a new process. We will remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance; whilst retaining the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a specialist.”

The Lib Dems also want to remove the “spousal veto,” or the consent clause that allows up to six months for someone to exit a marriage before their partner is granted a gender recognition certificate. Labour’s manifesto, on the other hand, pledges to drop its previous plan to remove this veto.

The Green Party, co-led by Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer, said in its manifesto that it “unequivocally” supports the concept of self-identification—which would remove the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a professional—and would scrap the spousal veto.

Both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are pledging legal recognition for those who claim to be “non-binary.”

The Greens’ manifesto states that the party would “change the law so an X gender marker can be added to passports for non-binary and intersex people who wish to use it.”

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK makes no specific pledges around the legal right to change gender, but wants to leave the European Court of Human Rights and replace the Equality Act of 2010, which it says “requires discrimination in the name of ‘positive action’.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are pledging to make legal gender a reserved matter to the UK, so the Scottish and Welsh governments cannot introduce self-ID. This follows the SNP clashing with the UK government over the issue after former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tried to bring in a law that would have allowed young people to legally change gender at 16.

Reform UK Chairman Richard Tice (L) and party leader Nigel Farage launch 'Our Contract with You' while on the General Election campaign trail in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, on June 17, 2024. (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Conversion Therapy

The Conservatives have pledged to drop their proposed ban on so-called conversion therapy, after concerns were raised that such a ban could force therapists to “affirm” the chosen identity of a gender-confused person.

On the other hand, Labour, the Lib Dems, and the Greens will all press ahead with a ban. Sir Keir said in his manifesto, “So-called conversion therapy is abuse – there is no other word for it – so Labour will finally deliver a full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices, while protecting the freedom for people to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The Greens are pledging mental health provision tailored for people’s “identity,” which would include their race, ethnicity, and neurodiversity as well as “gender identity.”

The Cass Review and Transgender Ideology in Schools

Reform makes a clear and simple pledge—if somewhat light on detail—to ban transgender ideology in school, pledging: “No gender questioning, social transitioning or pronoun swapping. Inform parents of under 16s about their children’s life decisions.”

Mr. Farage’s manifesto is the only one pledging to review the Online Safety Act because, he said, “social media giants that push baseless transgender ideology and divisive Critical Race theory should have no role in regulating free speech.”

The Lib Dems make no mention of the damning Cass Review or any commitment to delivering evidence-based care for gender-questioning children, saying only that they want to deliver “high-quality sex and relationship education.”

Sir Keir is promising that Labour will “work to implement the recommendations” of the 400-page Cass report, but has made no pledge around the teaching of gender ideology in school or whether the party will take forward the current government guidelines.

The Conservatives are pledging to give parents the right to see what their children are being taught in relationships and sex education and to implement the Cass recommendations.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey kisses 3-month-old baby Nellie Timpson prior to making sandcastles at Broadsands Beach, in Paignton, England, on June 17, 2024. (Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

Mr. Sunak is also pledging that current guidance for schools on how to treat gender-questioning children will be enshrined into law.

Having already banned puberty blockers on the NHS, the Tories are pledging to go further to stop the private prescription of puberty blockers to children suffering gender confusion.

The Greens pledge a “full, evidence-based and age-appropriate” sex education curriculum that will include what they term ”LGBTIQA+ content and resources.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak puts his hand up during a visit to a classroom in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, England on June 7, 2024. (PA)

Single-Sex Spaces

The Conservatives propose a new law to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex and not gender identity.

The Tories also want to amend the NHS Constitution to recognise every patient’s right to request single-sex accommodation and same-sex intimate care.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens make no such pledge around hospital or personal care, although Sir Keir is pledging to give “continued” support for single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act 2010.

The Lib Dems are pledging to introduce data collection and publication requirements for “gender” rather than “sex,” and are also pledging more support for those who enter the country illegally and claim they are persecuted in their own countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The charity Sex Matters said in a statement that the Liberal Democrat pledges are “the reverse of standing up for single-sex services, and they would dismantle decades of legal provisions designed to protect women’s and girls’ rights. They centre the wishes of adults who identify as not being the sex they are while failing to consider the human rights of everybody else.”

Sex Matters broadly welcomed the Conservative pledges, saying they “set a benchmark for serious, evidence-based policy-making on sex and gender. ”

The charity described Labour’s pledges as a “mixed bag,” which “taken together, create a confused picture.”