Keir Starmer: a woman is an adult female

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that “a woman is an adult female” as he hardened his stance on gender.

The Labour leader insisted that biological women needed single-sex spaces as he ruled out introducing self-identification for changing gender, saying he would retain a requirement for medical diagnosis.

Starmer also backed expansion of London’s Ulez scheme, despite blaming it for Labour’s unexpected defeat in last week’s Uxbridge by-election, instead arguing for greater financial help for those affected.

At Labour’s national policy forum this weekend, the party formally ditched a policy of self-identification which would have allowed people to change their legal gender without the need for a medical diagnosis.

Starmer cited controversy over the Scottish government’s law introducing self-identification, which was blocked by Rishi Sunak