- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has said that he believes cent per cent of women do not have penises.
The Conservative leader made the remark amid a controversy over transgender issues and put himself at odds with opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer who said earlier this month during an interview that 99.9 percent of women “haven’t got a penis”.
When Sunak was asked in an interview with ConservativeHome, a Tory-supporting website, whether 100 per cent of women do not have penises, he said, “Yes, of course”.
The premier also said that one “should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about changing their gender”.
He added that when it comes to the issues of protecting women’s rights and spaces, he thinks the issue of biological sex is “fundamentally important” when such questions are given a thought.
Sunak’s remarks come at a time when Britain is debating gender law issues and the government is considering plans to set up a distinction in equality laws between a person who was born with a particular sex identity and someone who has undergone a sex change.
According to a report by the Independent, the prime minister is eyeing to exploit the Labour’s division over transgender rights ahead of the next general election, expected to happen next year. It said he is also pressing ahead with a promise that was made during last year’s Conservative Party leadership election to reform sex’s legal definition.
A review by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission said that amending the Equality Act 2010 to specifically refer to “biological sex” deserves further consideration.
The government had also asked the watchdog to consider the pros and cons for such a transformation, the Independent report added.
Kemi Badenoch, minister for women and equalities, wrote to the watchdog seeking its advice on the “benefits or otherwise” of a proposed amendment to change sex’s legal definition.
The Labour is split over trans rights, with backbench opposition to Starmer’s suggestion that some women have penises.
Canterbury Parliamentarian Rosie Duffield said the leader’s assertion left many “livid”, with women “frightened and furious” about the potential erosion of their rights.
Duffield previously said it was “dystopian” that the party’s leader was reluctant to say whether women could have penises, the Independent report added.
