Keir Starmer was asked this morning if he owed Rosie Duffield an apology. He can't do it.
'Do you owe her an apology?'@susannareid100 questions Sir @Keir_Starmer about his previous comments when he said MP Rosie Duffield was wrong to say that only women have a cervix. pic.twitter.com/eyRpOEGHOS
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) April 30, 2024
JK Rowling responds:
Male politicians who chose to pander to activists issuing violent threats against their own female MPs enabled and emboldened the toxic culture Keir Starmer now claims to deplore. When you're part of the cause, you've got some brass neck putting yourself forward as a cure.
One lousy apology and he'd have bought a lot of women's good will, but evidently the mob must still be appeased.
Joan Smith at UnHerd:
Starmer’s refusal to apologise to Duffield is bad enough. It’s part of his mulish reluctance to admit he has said any number of risible things about sex and gender, as though we all have short memories and he can rewrite the past. He wholeheartedly embraced gender ideology after he became leader and now seems to be having second thoughts, which is hardly surprising in light of the casualties it’s already claimed — Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf in Scotland, Leo Varadkar in Ireland.
A decent man would throw up his hands and admit he was wrong. Instead, Starmer takes refuge in platitudes — but they’re dangerous platitudes. He says he talks to Duffield. She says he doesn’t. He says he wants to have a discussion with her and “anybody else” about sex and gender. So why have I been waiting more than three years for a response to my letter on this very issue, which described attacks on women members of the Labour Party by trans activists? He still hasn’t replied after I spoke to him in person at a dinner in May 2022.
The question of where our likely next prime minister stands on the conflict between women’s rights and the outrageous demands of trans activists is not going to go away. And Starmer has made the situation a great deal worse by appearing to lie on TV about his dealings with one of his own MPs.
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