UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during an interview said that a hundred per cent of women do not have penises.
Amid an ongoing debate over trans legislation and issues, the UK Prime Minister’s response raises concerns for the transgender community. He also put himself at odds with the party chief and leader of the opposition, Sir Kleir Starmer.
Sunak was asked to share his two cents on the recent statement of Labour Party chief and Leader of Opposition in the British parliament Sir Keir Starmer, claiming "99.9 per cent of women of course do not have penises".
"What percentage would you put it at?" Sunak was asked during his interview with Conservative Home.
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At first, he laughed at the question, but when grilled about whether he thought the figure was actually 100 per cent, Sunak replied saying, "Yeah, of course."
"We should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about changing their gender. Of course, we should," he added.
"But when it comes to these issues of protecting women's rights, women's spaces, I think the issue of biological sex is fundamentally important when we think about those questions," he said.
Sunak's remarks come against the backdrop of Britain debating gender laws. The British government is considering plans to create a distinction in equality laws between a person who was born a particular sex and someone who has undergone a sex change.
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UK minister for women and equalities, Kemi Badenoch wrote to the equalities watchdog Equality and Human Rights Commission, seeking its advice on the "benefits or otherwise" of a proposed amendment to change the legal definition of sex.
"They've responded with some advice about the Equality Act and how it should think about biological sex, we're in the process of looking at that," Sunak said in the interview.
"But as a general kind of operating principle for me, biological sex is vitally, fundamentally important in these questions, we can't forget that,” he said asserting the need to make sure, particularly when it comes to “women's health, women's sports or spaces that we're protecting those rights and those places.”
UK's Equality Act bars people from the transgender community from single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters.
Earlier this year, the British government also blocked gender reform bills introduced by Scotland. The move was slammed by the Scottish authorities who claim their Gender Recognition Reform Bill would make it easier for people to change their legally recognized gender.
The Scottish government on Wednesday challenged the blocking of the bills and moved to take Westminster to court over the bill.
VICE World News had earlier this month also reported that seven senior officials including a board member recently quit Britain’s equalities and human rights watchdog due to the “transphobic direction” of the organization.
