'You're Personalising This': Wilfred Frost In Awkward Clash With Minister Over Starmer's Trans U-Turn

A Labour minister clashed with Wilfred Frost on Sky News amid calls for Keir Starmer to apologise after he U-turned on trans rights.

The prime minister changed his position on the issue following last week’s Supreme Court ruling which said a woman is determined by biological sex.

Starmer, who had previously said “trans women are women”, said on Tuesday that a woman is “an adult female”.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has led calls for Starmer, among other politicians, to apologise for their previous stance, saying: “I’m just one of millions of women disgusted by the lack of accountability or remorse.”

Policing minister Diana Johnson admitted this morning that, in light of the Supreme Court ruling, Starmer had been wrong in the past.

When Frost said Starmer had contributed to the “confusion” around the issue, the minister told him: “We’ve only been in power since last July. For 14 years, the previous government did not take steps to deal with that confusion.

“I do think it is a little rich of the current leader of the opposition to be pointing the finger at the prime minister.”

The presenter then hit back: “If she was here, if Rishi Sunak was here, if David Cameron was here, if any number of those people were here, I would be pressing them on this. But they’re not. You’re a member of the current government.

“You said the prime minister likes to follow the law. Where’s leadership? Where is coming out in front, owning up to your mistakes and apologising for the damage that you might have done?”

He added: “Can you move forward if you don’t acknowledge your mistake and don’t apologise for the damage it’s done?”

But the minister told him: “Can I say to you, as a woman, I’m not particularly interested in what men think or feel on issues around women’s rights. What I’m interested in is the law, and what’s really helpful from the Supreme Court judgment is the clarity it provides.”

Frost then said: “You can criticise me, you can say my view is irrelevant all you like.”

After Johnson told him she was not “personalising” the issue, the presenter said: “You are, you’re personalising this as it relates to the prime minister. He’s the prime minister. Whether he’s a man or a woman is irrelevant.

“His view is critically important on all topics. Just to say because he’s a man you can excuse his error – that is what you said.”

But the minister told him: “The prime minister can speak for himself – he doesn’t need me to speak for him.”