The transgender row isn’t going away. Prime Minister’s Questions this week was dominated by a jibe Rishi Sunak made about Keir Starmer’s stance on gender. The Labour leader then lashed out at Sunak for criticising him on the topic while the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey was in the Commons.
It’s clear that both sides in this debate are doubling down: Sir Keir has previously said ‘99.9 per cent of women haven’t got a penis’; while Sunak has said that ‘a man is a man and a woman is a woman’ – that’s just common sense’.
As well as a Spectator writer, I am a science teacher. The history of science is littered with fallacies dressed up as ‘common sense’ which have sowed confusion and held back progress. In this case, however, I think that Sunak has chanced upon the right answer.
Sir Keir has previously said ‘99.9 per cent of women haven’t got a penis’
This is a brutal debate.
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