Labour’s transgender extremism will keep the party unelectable

Lisa Nandy had been the most thoughtful candidate in the Labour leadership race. Her analysis of her party’s failings was the most frank and serious, but she has now waded into the Labour Party’s internal row over trans issues feet first. Alas, the subject of gender identity and trans rights brings out the baffling lunacy from within the most sensible of people.

At a hustings event the Member of Parliament for Wigan said that men who identify as women should be transferred into women’s prisons regardless of the crimes they’ve committed. Nandy said: “Trans women are women and trans men are men and should be accommodated in the prison of their choosing.”

Julie Long, a “gender-critical feminist”, asked Nandy whether violent male sexual offenders such as Christopher Walton should be allowed into women’s prisons. Walton is a convicted paedophile sent to a youth detention centre after pleading guilty to five charges of rape against two girls aged 13 and 15. After his conviction he began identifying as “Zoe Lynes”. “Zoe” has recently admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order by visiting a house when a child was present.

Ms Nandy said: “I believe fundamentally in people’s right to self-ID. I believe the gender recognition act strikes the wrong balance in relation to that […] Crimes that are recorded should be recorded as that person wishes having gone through that process.”

So, to sum up: Lisa Nandy believes that a convicted child rapist and biological man, who raped two teenage girls – not once but five times – should have his crimes recorded as being committed by a woman and should be housed in a women’s prison.

In effect, the liberal-left/progressive position is that a rapist and child abuser should be allowed in women only spaces, including a prison where many vulnerable women are serving time.

That’s it – stop the world, I want to get off. I didn’t expect to be so baffled by the world I inhabit by the age of 35 but there we have it. A “progressive” liberal position that says that a child rapist’s rights trumps that of women. Good luck with that on the doorstep in an election!

Putting trans rights over women’s rights, even for paedophiles? Yes, I can see a few issues with Labour’s long term hopes of rebuilding the red wall and mapping a route back to power.

Meanwhile, Nandy’s leadership rival, Rebecca Long Bailey, has previously stated that equality law should be changed to give trans people a legal right to enter women-only spaces. She claimed that this was not a threat to women’s rights. According to Long Bailey, women who face the constant threat of male violence or sexual harassment face no threat from any male-bodied person being able to self-identify as a woman and entering traditionally women’s only spaces. To question this logic, of course, is to invite accusations of bigotry.

Back on planet Earth, Karen Ingala Smith, head of the women’s sexual and domestic violence charity NIA, has emphasised the importance of women only spaces for vulnerable women: “I’ve lost count of the number of victim-survivors of men’s violence who’ve told me how important a women-only service was to them.” Classic bigotry.

These concerns are often dismissed as “transphobic” and compared to prejudice the gay community has faced – but there is a problem with the premise of that argument. Gay people have had to put up with being accused of being a risk to children or other men, but this is irrational prejudice based on ignorance and bigotry.

Women concerned about losing their rights are not accusing trans people of anything. Instead, they have legitimate concerns based on lived experience and facts. Those legitimate concerns are based on a fear of men – not trans people, men. We know that the vast majority of rapists, paedophiles and sexual abusers are men and that this puts women at risk. The concern for women is that predatory men will exploit gender self ID, and trans rights – and, by extension, trans people themselves – for their own evil intentions. There is already evidence of this having taken place.

For Labour leadership candidates to be so incredibly flippant about these concerns, and so ready to dismiss them in order to make seismic changes to equality laws is deeply concerning. If this is to become the official position of the Labour party, they may be surprised by the backlash they face as it seeps into the public consciousness beyond their membership.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry all signed a pledge drawn up by a group of trans activists demanding that they combat what they call transphobic “hate groups”, specifically naming Woman’s Place UK, a left-wing feminist and trade unionist group who are concerned about trans women accessing all-female spaces such as domestic refuges, prisons, changing rooms and toilets.

Woman’s Place UK supporters were defiant and started the hashtag “#ExpelMe” daring Labour to kick them out or defend them. Now that Labour has jumped down this rabbit hole, it’s a choice they will be asked to make again and again. They won’t be able to avoid it forever.

Considering that Lisa Nandy, once the most moderate and sensible of candidates, has embraced the most controversial and potentially reckless demands from trans rights campaigners, it may well be that Labour has already made its choice. Whoever wins the leadership will have to face the electoral consequences.