𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex will have been greeted with relief by many senior Labour figures. The last thing the party needs is a renewed culture war that would expose Labour divisions on this most controversial of subjects and allow Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to present herself as the country’s foremost defender of single-sex spaces.

The Tory leader won admirers in her party for her forthright opposition to the Scottish Government’s plans for gender self-identification, warning that “predators would be able to exploit any system that says you can just say you are what you are”.

She has declared that “no child is born in the wrong body” and said she loves being called a “culture warrior”.

The Conservatives went into the last election with promises to “amend the NHS Constitution so that it recognises every patient’s right to request single-sex accommodation and same-sex intimate care” and to “introduce primary legislation to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex”.

Mercifully for Labour, the Supreme Court has clarified that the Act’s definition of sex “makes clear that the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man”.

Labour ministers will hope the unanimous ruling helps the party and the country move on – and that they will no longer be grilled on their definition of a woman when they turn up for an interview.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government responded to the ruling with a pledge to “always” protect single-sex spaces, saying the ruling “brings clarity and confidence, for women and service providers such as hospitals, refuges, and sports clubs”.

The Supreme Court’s Lord Hodge may have stressed that the ruling should not be seen as a triumph for one side over another but Mrs Badenoch – who is adamant “you cannot change your biological sex” – hailed it as a “victory” for “all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious”.

She believes she is in step with the British public. And she will hope voters will think the same when they go to the polls next month to decide which party they want in control of local services.