At least Boris Johnson knows the difference between men and women

As a paid-up member of the Labour party, it’s rare that I agree wholeheartedly with a Conservative politician. But Boris Johnson has spoken some much-needed common sense in the gender debate. ‘When it comes to distinguishing between a man and a woman,’ the PM told MPs yesterday, ‘the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important.’

Boris is right: biology does matter. I’d actually go further and say that the basic facts of biology are all that matters. Like other sexually dimorphic species we are male or female, and that alone distinguishes men from women.

We all know this but – in an astonishing departure from reality – these basic truths are denied by people who should know better, supposedly in an attempt to be kind to trans people like me. We are told that sex is no barrier to womanhood. This fallacy has taken root across politics, but it has flourished on the opposition benches. Only two weeks ago, Keir Starmer insisted that ‘a