Fury as Labour’s plans to allow people to change gender more easily would usher in ‘self ID by the back door’
LABOUR would usher in “self ID by the back door” under proposals to let people change gender more easily, campaigners warned last night.
Sir Keir Starmer was slammed over plans to water down requirements for people to switch legal identity.
The party is considering letting individual GPs sign off gender recognition certificates — replacing a panel of specialists.
It believes it is “dehumanising” for a committee of expert doctors and lawyers to decide if someone has gender dysphoria.
MPs and campaign groups rapped the plans that could spell “disaster” for women and girls.
Helen Joyce, of Sex Matters, said: “Granting a gender recognition certificate on the say-so of a single GP, rather than a specialist panel, is self-ID by the back door.”
Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said: “This just shows that Labour have learned nothing about the way people seek to abuse the system.
“These changes would lead to more people in prisons self-IDing to get access to vulnerable women, and more males seeking to access women’s-only spaces.
“They should stop trying to weaponise this issue and allow professionals to do their job properly.”
Just two per cent of transgender people have a gender recognition certificate — for birth and marriage certificates.
Last year Labour dropped its pledge made under Jeremy Corbyn to allow people to change their legal sex without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Shadow Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds 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.”