Female Tory and Labour MPs unite to warn ‘extremist activists’ must not be allowed to erode women’s rights and insist single-sex spaces must be protected
- Labour’s Rosie Duffield and the Conservatives’ Miriam Cates made the warning
- Read more: Strong women are the raison d’etre of the Women’s Institute
Two female MPs from across the political divide have joined forces to defend women’s rights.
Labour’s Rosie Duffield and the Conservatives’ Miriam Cates warned last night that ‘extremist activists’ must not be allowed to erode hard-won protections.
Their rallying cry came as the debate over whether transgender women should be allowed into female-only spaces affects ever more sectors and organisations, from sports and schools to prisons and rape crisis centres – and now even the WI.
The pair told the Daily Express: ‘Women’s rights must be protected at all costs and we have united across the political divide to make sure they are not wiped out by stealth because people are too afraid to speak out.
‘This is not a party political issue, it’s about protecting the dignity of women and girls by maintaining single-sex spaces, women’s sport and female-only services, such as refuges and rape crisis centres.
Labour’s Rosie Duffield warned last night that ‘extremist activists’ must not be allowed to erode hard-won protections
‘For too long, women have been told to shut up about this issue by a small group of extremist activists.’
They insisted: ‘This is not about being anti-trans, it’s about making sure one person’s interests do not override another’s.’
The pair were both heckled in the Commons chamber earlier this year during a heated debate about Scotland’s controversial attempt to introduce self-ID for transgender people.
Miss Duffield was shouted down by some of her fellow Labour MPs before one of them, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, crossed the chamber to sit close to Mrs Cates as she spoke in what was branded an attempt to intimidate her.
Source: Read Full Article