MPs who believe women can have a penis will be named and shamed ahead of general election
MPs who believe women can have a penis will be named and shamed ahead of the general election, The Telegraph can reveal.
An “army” of volunteers in an apolitical new grassroots campaign is gearing up to meet all MPs and parliamentary candidates at hustings events and on their doorsteps to ask each one the question: “What is a woman?”
Their answers will be video recorded and uploaded individually to a website which is being launched in the coming months.
It will allow voters to find out instantly whether their next MP thinks women must be born female and that binary biological sex cannot be changed, or whether they believe that male-born transgender women are women too.
Sharron Davies MBE, the former Olympic swimmer and feminist campaigner who has been appointed as the campaign’s first ambassador, said it would let voters “know if their MP will stand up for women”.
The trans debate is likely to be one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the 2024 general election, with many MPs especially on the Left in a muddle over the definition of a woman.
The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said “99.9 per cent of women... haven’t got a penis”, while the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said a woman can “quite clearly” have a penis.
Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan, Labour Mayor of London, has said: “A woman, when it comes to biology and sex, is an adult girl… trans women can also be women as well.”
But the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has attempted to draw a clear dividing line between the Tories and opposition parties by insisting “a woman is an adult human female”, though some liberal-leaning MPs on his own benches still disagree with that.
A source close to the new campaign said: “Through an army of grassroots volunteers, the campaign will ask every single Parliamentary candidate, of all parties, that simple question: What is a Woman?
“We will record their responses (or prevarications) and upload the footage to a dedicated website accessible for all.
“This is not about lecturing or trolling MPs – far from it. We are apolitical. This is about transparency and honesty.”
The source said the volunteers “will be trained on how to approach MPs respectfully and courteously” and will “calmly give MPs the chance to clarify their position” while at hustings and on the streets.
Ms Davies said: “This is a David vs Goliath battle but we are winning. Having battled all my life for fairness in sport where women are disadvantaged, I am delighted to back this campaign.
“The sex and gender debate is fundamentally about a conflict of rights between men who identify as women and those of women and girls. If your MP or candidate – our future lawmakers – do not know what a woman is, how can they fight for us, our rights, our safety, and our hard fought for equalities & opportunities.
“This campaign will bring honesty to politics and to the debate, so every voter in the country knows if their MP will stand up for women.”
The campaign is being managed by the free speech firm Riverside Advisory, who were not available for comment.
Trans debates have become far more mainstream since the 2019 election, fuelled by high-profile clashes such as attempts to cancel JK Rowling and the feminist philosophy professor Kathleen Stock.
The row over trans prisoner Adam Graham, who changed his name to Isla Bryson, being housed in a female prison in Scotland also contributed to the downfall of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon amid public outrage.
The trans issue also featured prominently in the Tory leadership contest last year, with Penny Mordaunt forced to publicly explain why she was not “woke” on the issue.
Last week, a new survey from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) - which has been collecting social attitudes data since 1983 - found that people describing themselves as “a little prejudiced” against trans people has doubled in three years, rising from 14 per cent in 2019 to 27 per cent last year.