The Labour Party Conference is making headlines before it has even begun. The Spectator's Steerpike first reported that four major British trade unions will boycott this year's Labour Women's Conference after participation was restricted to biological women.
The dispute is the latest flashpoint in the party's long-running internal row over transgender rights. ASLEF, the Musicians' Union, USDAW and Unison, the UK's largest trade union, said they would not send delegates to the September event after the Labour National Executive Committee ruled that only biological women could attend the main conference, although transgender people remain welcome at fringe events.
Unison, which has donated £43.8m ($58.3m) to the Labour Party over the last 25 years, confirmed that the boycott was prompted by the exclusion of transgender delegates. A union spokesperson said the party's restrictions on attendance were considered incompatible with Unison's policy on transgender equality.
In reaction to the announcement by the unions, the Women's Labour Declaration said: “The decision by some unions not to attend is a disappointing and petulant act of performative politics, demonstrating how out of touch some union leaders are with the women members they were elected to represent.”
The Scrapped 2025 Women's Conference
Last year, Labour canceled its 2025 Women's Conference after receiving legal advice relating to the UK Supreme Court's ruling in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers. The court unanimously held that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex, meaning that a transgender person's Gender Recognition Certificate does not change a person's legal sex for the purposes of the Act. The judgment had significant implications for the operation of single-sex spaces and organizations across the UK.
The party said it needed time to consider the legal consequences of the ruling before holding a women's conference. Instead, discussions on women's issues were incorporated into the main Labour Party Conference. The decision drew criticism from women's rights groups, who argued that the conference could have proceeded under the new legal clarification, while transgender advocacy groups opposed any move to exclude transgender women from women-only events.
The row highlights the shift in Labour's official position since the Supreme Court judgment. Former party leader Keir Starmer, who previously said that “trans women are women”, has since accepted the court's ruling and stated that a woman is an “adult female”, while maintaining that transgender people should continue to be treated with dignity and respect.
Former health secretary James Murray admitted on live television that although he had previously said transgender women were women, he no longer believed that, saying he had “changed his mind”. Despite these shifts, the issue remains one of the most divisive in the Labour Party and continues to generate controversy ahead of September's conference.
