The British #LabourParty leader, #sirkeirstarmer has been criticised by the #LGBTQ+ community and allies after giving an interview littered with worrying anti-trans comments. Speaking to #TheSundayTimes on Saturday (1 April), Starmer indulged a reductive questioning over whether women “can have a penis”, and the “debate” about trans rights vs women’s rights, as though the two are mutually exclusive. He also made a chilling pronouncement that seemingly amounts to support for schools “outing” trans youth to their parents, saying that he “would want to know” if his child identified as trans or non-binary. Starmer said: “Look, of course I’d want to know. I say that as a parent. I would want to know and I think the vast majority of parents would want to know. “That’s why we have to have national guidance on it and they should try to make it cross-party, because it’s not helpful to parents or schools to have this as just a toxic divide when what’s needed is practical, common sense advice.” When asked about the sex organs that women “can have”, instead of shutting down this invasive line of questioning, Starmer said: “For 99.9 per cent of women, it is completely biological … and of course they haven’t got a penis.” Vowing that there would be no “rolling back on women’s rights”, the Labour leader went on to say: “I think there is a fear that somehow there could be the rolling back of some of the things that have been won. “There are still many battles that need to go ahead for women and I don’t think we should roll anything back. I think we should go on to win the next battles for women. And that is a very important sort of starting point for this debate.” In response to the Sunday Times article, LGBTQ+ people, allies and Labour supporters – both current and former – frustrated by Starmer’s perceived hypocrisy and dishonesty over a number of issues, including his stance on #transrights, have taken to Twitter. Trans broadcaster #IndiaWilloughby tweeted her summary of the Times interview: “‘We must protect women from you – but we will crack down on anyone who calls you names.’ Keir Starmer to the UK trans community, March 2023.” #uknews #ukpolitics #lgbtq #queernews - @pinknews