Ed Davey backs Lib Dem motion on transgender rights and single-sex spaces

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has expressed support for an emergency motion at the party’s annual conference in Brighton regarding transgender rights and single-sex spaces. The motion, selected by party members, seeks to scrap current guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that restricts the use of female lavatories and changing rooms to biological women.

The proposed motion describes the EHRC guidance as “discriminatory and unworkable” and calls for a cross-party committee to review laws to better protect transgender rights. It also includes the stance that “trans women are women” and “trans men are men.”

Internal opposition has emerged from the sex-based activist group Liberal Voice for Women. The group’s chairman, Zoe Hollowood, criticized the motion, stating it would “take a sledgehammer to women’s rights” and move the party backward into “toxic” culture wars. Critics have accused Davey of betraying manifesto pledges to uphold the Equality Act 2010.