SNP’s ‘cavalier’ gender reforms turned Keir Starmer against self-ID

Sir Keir Starmer has blamed the SNP’s “cavalier” attempt to liberalise gender laws for persuading him to change his mind on supporting self-identification.

In an outright criticism of his party north of the border, the Labour leader said that the group led by Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, was wrong to continue to oppose any medical involvement in people changing their gender.

“Yeah, we don’t agree,” he told Nicky Campbell’s programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. “We don’t think that self identification is the right way forward.”

•Scottish Labour defies Keir Starmer and backs gender self-ID

The comments undermine the close relationship that Starmer and Sarwar have publicly emphasised, particularly as it follows criticism from Labour in Edinburgh about the London party’s refusal