Ed Davey at the Liberal Democrats’ party conference (Credit: Contributor: Milo Chandler)
3 min read
The Liberal Democrats have changed the rules around their federal elections to exclude trans people from gender diversity quotas, despite members refusing to back the measure at their conference last month.
The Lib Dems’ constitution currently mandates that a proportion of its federal bodies should “self-identify as men or non-binary people, and self-identify as women or non-binary people respectively”.
The gender-critical group Liberal Voice for Women (LVW) brought forward a motion calling for trans women to be excluded from these quotas at this year’s party conference in Bournemouth.
LVW did not get sufficient support for the debate to proceed, with a majority of members voting to move to the next item of business. This left the constitution unchanged.
After conference, PoliticsHome reported that the Liberal Democrats were consulting the party’s lawyers to check their constitution complied with the Equality Act.
After receiving this legal advice, on Monday, the party issued a statement on its website informing members that quotas would be applied to people according to their sex at birth, not with the gender with which they identify.
In the message, members were told that two clauses of the constitution “need to be reinterpreted by the Returning Officer to make them compliant with the Equality Act 2010, in the context of the Supreme Court judgement”.
This means that a proportion of the party’s federal bodies should now be made up of “men and women respectively”, with ‘men’ interpreted as ‘cis men’ and ‘women’ meaning ‘cis women’.
The communication of these rule changes and the changes themselves have angered some Lib Dems.
With voting for the federal elections beginning on Wednesday, Prue Bray, who is currently running for President of the Lib Dems, wrote on the independent website Liberal Democratic Voice: “The stupidity of the way that this has been done, without any explanation to those involved, without any priming, without any expression of regret..! I am not sure whether I feel furious – or heartbroken.”
Josh Babarinde, Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, wrote on the same website: “It is gut-wrenching to see this reverberate through our party, particularly in the last 24 hours, and to have spent yesterday speaking with some of our trans and non-binary members who feel disillusionment and despair.”
One Lib Dem MP told PoliticsHome they are “unhappy at both the decision and how it has been done” and that it “seems more cock up than conspiracy, but a lot of our members are going to need reassurance”.
While pleased the party’s diversity quotas now comply with the Supreme Court ruling, LVW has said that the rules still priortise trans people for federal positions.
A spokesperson from the group said that the new quota “guarantees those with a trans identity at least one place on every committee over 10 people, despite the fact trans people are only 0.5 per cent of the population and that there is no evidence they are underrepresented on Lib Dem committees.”
They added that “cis” is not a term recognised in law, and is “a label many women would reject and – given everyone has a sex – is unnecessarily exclusionary against those with trans identities”.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “We updated our rules for internal elections to ensure we are complying with the Equality Act and the recent Supreme Court judgement. Liberal Democrats will continue to champion the rights of trans people and allow them to live their lives free from fear and discrimination.
“Like all organisations, we’re waiting to see the new guidance from the EHRC. We have urged the government to publish it quickly and provide much-needed clarity.”