The Catch 22 of Labour’s gender policy

Earlier this week, I wrote about David Lewis, a Labour member who was allowed to stand for election as a constituency women’s officer on the basis that he identifies as a woman under some circumstances. That report seems to have drawn some attention, not least from Labour HQ. David Lewis was told on Tuesday night that he has been suspended from the party and cannot therefore stand for election as Basingstoke CLP women’s officer. I’ll try to unravel the implications of that in a moment, but first I want to say something about David Lewis and the general debate around this case.

As is usual with debates around gender, a lot of people have strong feelings about this case, and have expressed them bluntly. On social media, David Lewis has been called all sorts of unpleasant things, accused of bigotry and other nastiness. That does not accord with my impression of him.