Lib Dems Seeking Legal Advice On Gender Rules After Conference Row
Ed Davey with Lib Dem MPs in Bournemouth (Credit: PA Images)
2 min read
Exclusive: The Liberal Democrats are consulting the party’s lawyers to check their constitution is lawful, after members blocked a motion to remove trans women from women's quotas at conference, PoliticsHome can reveal.
The Lib Dems’ constitution currently mandates that a proportion of its federal bodies should “self-identify as men or non-binary people, and self-identify as women or non-binary people respectively”.
The gender-critical group Liberal Voice for Women (LVW) brought forward a motion calling for trans women to be excluded from these quotas at this year’s party conference in Bournemouth.
Zoe Hollowood, a member of LVW, argued that trans women should not be included in diversity quotas for women given their biological sex, and that self-identification is not recognised by the law. She pointed out that women are currently underrepresented in Lib Dem party positions.
However, treasurer of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats Lucas North claimed that the debate was a “sham” and urged members to “reject the idea that trans identities are up for debate”.
LVW did not get sufficient support for the debate to proceed, with a majority of members voting to move to the next item of business. This left the constitution unchanged.
The party is now consulting its lawyers to ensure that its constitution is currently complying with the Equality Act, PoliticsHome has learned.
Speaking after conference, Hollowood said: “It is good to hear the Party is finally seeking legal advice on the quotas, however given the internal elections have already begun it would’ve been far better to sort this out when we first contacted them in May.
“If ultimately it allows them to move to a place where we have a new quota where no males can take the place of women in a women’s quota then that will be a good outcome.”
Callum Robertson, a member of the party’s Federal Board, said: “Over the past five years people have wasted party resources time and time again on internal infighting with the unpleasant purpose of having a go at trans people. Money that could be spent on stopping Farage becoming prime minister.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “There was a mini-debate and our members voted not to debate this particular change to our party constitution this time.
“Our constitution is already clear that we follow the law, including the Equality Act, and of course we respect the Supreme Court judgment, as you’d expect. Like all organisations, we’re waiting to see the new guidance from the EHRC, so I hope the government will publish it quickly.”
