Feminists have welcomed Jeremy Corbyn’s permission to campaign “freely and publicly” over a transgender row that has divided the Labour membership.
The party is embroiled in a bitter dispute over the decision to open its all-women shortlists to “all self-identifying women”, including transgender women who have not changed legal gender. Transgender activists have demanded that fellow Labour members who have challenged the idea that trans women are women should be expelled from the party.
Mr Corbyn rejected that approach yesterday when he responded to the outrage over the suspension of Jennifer James, a party activist who has raised more than £20,000 to mount a legal challenge over the shortlist issue. The Times has revealed that she was one of dozens of women who had been blacklisted in a secret dossier for criticising the party’s stance on transgender women.
Asked on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One if her supporters should stop raising money, Mr Corbyn said: “People are free to campaign within the party and publicly, of course they are, and raise these issues and have that discussion.” Ms James, 51, said: “We are, of course, delighted that Jeremy has confirmed we have the right to campaign against self-identification within the party and raise funds on this issue.”
The party’s decision to open the shortlists to “all self-defining women” has angered those who say that transgender rights should not be extended at the expense of women’s rights.
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Mr Corbyn said: “The position of the party is that where you have self-identified as a woman, then you are treated as a woman.”