The British Labour party, having suffered a humiliating defeat in December’s general election, does not appear to have learned its lesson. The party’s outgoing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, turned the party into a hotbed of radical leftism that did not reflect the values of ordinary voters. But while other Labour MPs spoke out about the importance of recovering the mainstream, its current leadership contest seems to indicate a lack of reform on one important issue: biological sex, and whether the laws defining it ought to be altered.

An activist campaign group, the Labour Campaign for Trans Right (LCTR), came up with a pledge which outlines 12 policy points, including the expulsion of all “transphobic” party members and a denunciation of “hate” groups (which, in actual fact, are groups that protect sex-based protections for women, children, and gays). Despite its blatantly authoritarian nature, all the leadership hopefuls, except for Sir Keir Starmer, have signed this pledge.” One would-be leader, Lisa Nandy, told the BBC that “it’s a very tough pledge but it’s important that we are tough.” Nandy later told an audience of Labour supporters that a convicted child rapist should be allowed to legally identify as a woman and be placed in a women’s prison since “trans women are women.”