Penny Mordaunt was asked to clarify her stance on gender identity after claiming she previously supported gender self-identification and then changed her mind. She said she has “never been in favor of self-ID”. position and evidence to back it up.
“I attended a consultation to look at the Gender Recognition Act, I have never been in favor of self-identification.
“I would have made the system much better, but I wouldn’t have separated it from healthcare.
“I’m a woman, I’m a biological woman, if I had a mastectomy I would still be a woman — I’m a biological woman in every cell of my body.
“I am also legally a woman and some people who are born male go through a process and at the end of that process get a legal document in their new gender, but that doesn’t mean they are identical to me.”
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Her reaction provoked an outrage from fellow candidate Kemi Badenoch, who said that was not how she remembered it, adding “it is registered”.
When asked if she accepted Penny Mordaunt’s report on her stance on gender self-ID, Kemi Badenoch said: “I find it hard to do because when I took over the position of Equality Secretary in 2020, the policy was that was pushed self-ID.
“So I don’t understand how that would have changed unless someone else did it in between.
“I didn’t work with Penny, but I understood that the previous minister who had filled the role wanted self-ID, and that was something I turned around with Liz.”
“What I’ll be clear about is that I started in the women’s and equal opportunities job.
“There was a plan to move forward with self-ID.
“I believe in women’s rights, I also believe that transgender people should be treated with respect.
“So what I did is I changed the outcome of that work so we could make the process easier and friendlier, but not further with self-ID, which I think is the right position.”