UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak distanced himself from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer by saying no women have a penis, the Telegraph reported citing an interview published on website ConservativeHome.
The Labour leader Starmer earlier said that 99.9% of women do not have penises while discussing issues related to transgenders. Issues related to transgenders and the LGBTQIA+ community have sparked conversations in the US, UK and much of western Europe and Global North.
Sunak said he has a different opinion and did not believe Starmer’s take where the latter said “some women did have male genitalia”.
Rishi Sunak said that biological sex was “vitally important” during the interview.
“As a general operating principle for me, biological sex is vitally, fundamentally important to these questions – we can’t forget that – and that’s why we need to make sure, particularly when it comes to women’s health, women’s sports and women’s spaces, that we are protecting those rights,” the UK Prime Minister said.
Sunak, however, pointed out that it was right to show “compassion and understanding”’ to those questioning their gender identity. He said that this, however, should not lead to lifting of protections of female-only spaces.
When asked if he believed that 100% of women do not have a penis, Sunak responded: “Yes, of course. The first thing to say is, we should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about their gender. But when it comes to these issues of protecting women’s rights and women’s spaces, the issue of biological sex is fundamentally important.”
The Labour leader’s comment on women sparked a debate as many thought Starmer implied that that one in a thousand women do have male genitalia which was almost equal to 34,000 people in the UK, a report by the Telegraph explained.
“For 99.9% of women, it is completely biological… and of course they haven’t got a penis,” Starmer said, pointing out that the majority of women did not have male genitalia but that some did.
The Telegraph in its report also said that the UK government is considering clarifying in the legislation that “sex” means “biological sex” and not the gender a person identifies as which could pave the way for female sports to exclude trans people.
Read all the Latest News here