A senior member of the Labour frontbench has offered an apology to a fellow MP, Rosie Duffield, who has said she felt ostracised by the party because of her views on gender reforms.
Duffield had also accused male party colleagues of trying to shout her down in the Commons earlier this year when she spoke to back the government’s move to block gender reforms proposed in Scotland.
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said in an interview on Times Radio on Friday: “I’m really sorry about the way Rosie’s been treated.”
Streeting was speaking about a range of issues, including the debate about a self-identification system for people who want to change gender. He made the comments after being asked if Labour MPs such as Duffield, who wanted Labour to move away from self-ID, were owed an apology by the party leadership.
He said he had worked closely with Duffield after she was elected – particularly on Brexit and antisemitism – but the topic of self-ID had “sometimes created a wedge between friends”.
“There are times when Rosie’s kind of tweeted or liked certain things and I’ve been really upset and there were times where, you know, I’ve taken a much more defensive position around trans equality and Rosie’s felt that [I] personally, and others, haven’t listened.
“That’s why I think we’ve got to try and find a better way through this to create a culture in which friendships aren’t divided, families aren’t divided, and countries aren’t divided.”
Duffield told the Guardian: “I really value Wes as both a colleague and a friend and, as he says, we have fought several political battles alongside each other on difficult subjects.
“This topic, however, has proved more toxic than most and it’s good to have the allyship of a colleague I respect who clearly wants to engage, listen to and understand Labour’s feminist members and groups who have previously been ignored or no-platformed by the party.”
The debate has caused divisions across parties, including Labour. In a move that has been seen in some quarters as an attempt to carve out a middle of the road position and heal rifts, Anneliese Dodds, the party’s chair and shadow equalities secretary, announced last week that Labour would overhaul an “outdated” law to make it easier for transgender people to transition, while maintaining protections for single-sex spaces.
Streeting spoke about the reaction of many women in the Labour party, including MPs, to his comments in a BBC Radio 4 interview in which he had urged trans rights campaigners not to try to “shut down” the author JK Rowling.
“I was inundated with women in the Labour party, including parliamentary colleagues, who I do not consider to be shrinking violets, who were basically saying: ‘I’m really glad you said this about having a better conversation, because I felt afraid about voicing my concerns’. And I thought, if some of the strongest women I know are feeling silenced, we’ve got a problem.”
