Kemi Badenoch vows to always defend single-sex spaces
Kemi Badenoch has vowed she will “never stop defending” the rights of women after receiving letters and cards from rape victims urging her to continue.
The equalities minister said the letters showed why “we must defend single-sex spaces from those who seek to delegitimise or redefine them”.
She tweeted a picture of a card she had received from a woman who had been raped in a women’s toilet by a man who had gained entry by wearing make-up.
The woman concluded: “This is to say a heartfelt thank you to you and your party for standing up for women.
“I had never voted Conservative before men started claiming that they were women. Now I will not vote for anyone else.”
Mrs Badenoch praised Roz Adams, who last week won a tribunal case against her dismissal from a Scottish rape charity because she believed rape victims should be able to seek refuge in a same-sex environment.
“The Roz Adams case shows that there are so many brave women all over the world who are dealing with this intense opposition in their jobs and lives,” she wrote. “They are the true inspiration and I will never stop defending their rights.
“Those of us who have a voice and have power on this issue, must use it to help those women, who do not. They notice and they appreciate it.”
Mrs Badenoch, who is also the Business Secretary, is seen as a front-runner in the race to be Tory leader should the party lose the general election.
Gender politics is one of the key dividing lines between the Conservatives and Labour, with the Tories opposing self-ID for trans people and Labour pledging to make it easier.
The woman’s card was written after the Government announced new rules ensuring that most public buildings would have to have single-sex toilets.
“I was raped in a women’s toilet when I was 16, by a man who felt entitled to enter because he was wearing make-up,” she said.
“Many years later, in my 40s, I was followed into a woman’s toilet by a man who tried to break down the cubicle door to attack me. He felt entitled to enter because he was wearing feminine clothes.
“Men who intend to attack women are very bold. They will not hesitate to take advantage of any situation that gives them access to women.”
She added: “The Conservative Party can do whatever it likes. As long as it stands up for women, my vote is assured.
“Thank you. I have experienced a lifetime of male violence. Thank you for making women safer.”
Last week, Ms Adams won a constructive dismissal action against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC), with the tribunal finding she was harassed and discriminated against over her gender-critical belief that biological sex is “immutable”.
The tribunal found that the transgender woman in charge of the charity, Mridul Wadhwa, presided over a “heresy hunt” against Ms Adams because of her gender-critical beliefs.
Her offence was to suggest that a female survivor of sexual violence should be told the biological sex of a counsellor who identified as non-binary. She was then subjected to an ERCC investigation “somewhat reminiscent of the work of Franz Kafka” that “should not have been launched in the first place”, the tribunal found.
Tweeting a picture of a card she had received, Mrs Badenoch wrote: “Every week, I get cards and letters like this, reminding me why we must defend single-sex spaces from those who seek to de-legitimise or redefine them.
“Reading it was both moving and profoundly distressing, but I felt compelled to share it after catching up on the news of Roz Adams’s tribunal case.”
Ad hominem smears
She added: “As Ms Adams found, there are many tactics used to silence those who point out that something is going wrong including:
“1) Ad hominem smears attacking the whistleblower as eg ‘transphobic’ or ‘far-Right’.
“2) Use of probability fallacies ‘I’ve never experienced this so it can’t be true’ or ‘This is unlikely to happen, so why worry about it?’
“3) Attempting to demean those in authority who have concerns as ‘culture warriors’. Or claiming politicians should stick to talking about the economy and the NHS.
“4) Redefining the issue to cause confusion. Eg pretending the Government is banning unisex and disabled toilets rather than ‘gender-neutral’ mixed-sex bathrooms.”
Mrs Badenoch’s tweet came just a day after it emerged a Cabinet minister urged Downing Street to give colleagues such as her and Penny Mordaunt more airtime.
In a private memo, Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, accused No 10 of “placating” Mr Sunak and acting as though the Prime Minister was as popular as he was when he took office, despite falling poll ratings.
He urged aides to put “good, capable, senior colleagues” up for major interview slots more frequently, rather than “average performers” like Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary.