During his campaign, Mr. Sunak pledged to «ensure that the Equality Act clearly states that sex means biological sex «. ; Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images.
Rishi Sunak has faced calls for a public 'iron guarantee' on his promise to rewrite the equality law to protect women amid fears from Conservative MPs that he will backtrack on his promise. .
Conservative supporters plan to challenge Mary Caulfield, Minister for Women, to promise in the House of Commons that Mr Sunak will make his promised legal changes to ensure «mothers and women are not erased from public life.”
Sources close to the prime minister insist he remains committed to the pledge, with one saying the government is carefully considering the Equality and Human Rights Commission's recommendations on the matter, while another says: «It's definitely not delayed and not cancelled.» .
But senior Tories fear the party will lose the opportunity to change the law unless Mr. Sunak takes urgent action ahead of next year's election.
One member of the bench said: “There is a debate in the government about whether this should be a hill to die on, and it is not clear what kind of scandal the government wants by doing this in the run-up to the elections. But if they can't say what a woman is, by the time we start the election, we'll be in trouble.»
«Still a lot of confusion»
In response to growing calls for the government to ease the ban on transgender people from women's sports and same-sex spaces, Mr. Sunak pledged during his campaign last year to «ensure that the Equality Act clearly states that sex means biological sex.» . «. He said: «I think biology is critical as we think about some very practical functions like toilets or sports.»
Campaigners and many Conservative MPs say the change is needed to provide clarity to bodies from NHS hospitals to sports authorities, who have said current Labor-era legislation does not make it clear that protections given to people based on their «gender» are not refers to those who self-identify as a different gender from their biological gender.
The status quo has caused confusion over whether trans women can be banned from participating in women's sports or going to venues reserved only for women. for women, such as hospital rooms, locker rooms, and rape shelters.
On June 12, MPs will use the Westminster Hall debate to demand assurance from Ms Caulfield that Mr Sunak will make changes before the next election, in which case the government is expected to announce concrete plans within months.
Damian Green, former First Secretary of State, said: «It is very important that the Government make it clear that it will clarify the definition in this Parliament and let us know the timeline as soon as possible.»
Baroness Jenkin, a prominent Tory women's rights activist, said: «There is a huge amount of confusion about what characteristics are protected in the Equality Act, and I think people are hoping for clarification.»
Toxic Public Debate Maya Forstater, director of the Sex Matters campaign group, which initiated one of the two petitions that led to the debate scheduled for June 12, said: “We would like to hear… an ironclad guarantee that they are going to fix the problem. problem with the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act. They can no longer leave the interaction between these two laws ambiguous. It is the lack of clarity in the law that has made the public debate so venomous.
“They can do it with a short consultation and secondary legislation, so there is no need to drag it out.
“To be clear that the Equality Act refers to gender discrimination and discrimination against trans people as two different things would allow the Commission on Equality and Human Rights to produce clear and simple guidance. It has to be as simple and clear as it can fit on a postcard.»
Source #10 insisted that change must be approached «thoughtfully» and «it takes time.»
Supporters believe Mr Sunak and his ministers were given «political cover» to make the change when Baroness Faulkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, wrote to Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch in April recommending that the government consider explicitly protecting » biological sex» rather than just «gender» in the Equality Act 2010 to «make legal clarity.»
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