Labour conference: Emily Thornberry backs Sir Keir Starmer over trans row
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Emily Thornberry says it is “factually inaccurate” to say that only women have a cervix.
Emily Thornberry has backed the Labour leader's stance in a row over whether only women have cervixes.
The shadow trade secretary said it was "factually inaccurate" to make the claim when some trans men and non-binary people also have a cervix.
It comes after a Labour MP supported online criticism of a tweet referring to "individuals with a cervix".
Rosie Duffield was called transphobic by trans rights supporters - but she has rejected the claim.
Asked about the incident on Sunday, Sir Keir said it was "not right" to say only women have a cervix, and called for a "mature, respectful debate" around the issue.
He added: "We need to... bear in mind that the trans community are amongst the most marginalised and abused communities."
Appearing on BBC Two's Politics Live on Monday, Ms Thornberry said she agreed with her leader's stance on the issue.
"It is factually inaccurate [as] there are men who have cervixes," she said. "There are men who are trans. And they are men. It is just factually wrong [to say otherwise]."
She said people who identified as men with cervixes "often, frankly, have had quite a hard time in the way in which they live their lives", adding: "To then have some people still shouting at them saying, 'you are wrong, you are a woman, I don't care what you say', then I think we start getting into transphobia.
"I think we need to have a little more tolerance and a little less shouting at each other, quite frankly. I am personally really sad that a great party like ours is having this kind of level of debate."
Ms Thornberry added: "It is just people trying to live their lives and we should have a bit of understanding."
Supportive of trans rights
Canterbury MP Ms Duffield has regularly used social media to outline her own position on transgender issues - especially around the debate on the Gender Recognition Act.
Some groups are calling for the medical diagnosis element of the process to change gender to be scrapped in England and Wales, allowing people to self-identify.
But Ms Duffield believes that biological females should have protected spaces where biological males are not allowed to go - such as domestic violence refuges and prisons - and she is against people being able to self-identify as trans to gain access to those spaces.
The Labour MP has said she is "completely supportive of trans rights".
But she has been condemned by some LGBT+ groups - who say trans men and women should be treated the same as biological men and women - and two of her staff members resigned from her office over her views.
Labour MP Rosie Duffield is not attending Labour's party conference this week
In August, Ms Duffield liked a tweet by broadcaster Piers Morgan, who criticised a news story from CNN about cancer screening for "individuals with a cervix", responding: "Do you mean women?"
When the MP was called transphobic for appearing to endorse the tweet, she replied: "I'm a 'transphobe' for knowing that only women have a cervix… ?!"
She later acknowledged that some trans men have a cervix.
Sir Keir told the BBC's Andrew Marr that saying only women have a cervix was "something that shouldn't be said" and it was "not right".