135 MPs back motion to block Ehrc Guidance
Labour MPs and others have signed a Commons motion to block the EHRC guidance after the Equality and Human Rights Commission drafted a code of practice following the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex. The motion has 135 MPs behind it, including 69 Labour MPs, as concern grows over how the code would work in hospitals, toilets and changing rooms.
Commons motion over EHRC Guidance
The latest move puts the EHRC guidance back at the centre of a dispute that moved from the courts into Parliament. The commission drafted the code of practice after the Supreme Court ruled last year that sex in the Equality Act refers only to biological sex.
The code says trans people should not be allowed to use facilities such as toilets and changing rooms for the gender they live as. It also says that in some cases trans people should not use facilities for their biological sex, and that gender-neutral third spaces should be provided where possible.
Mary-Ann Stephenson questioned
Concern among MPs increased after Mary-Ann Stephenson, the EHRC chair, and John Kirkpatrick, the EHRC chief executive, were questioned last week by the Commons women and equalities committee. Kevin McKenna, a Labour MP and former nurse, asked whether trans patients in hospitals could really be cared for in gender-neutral side rooms.
McKenna later said the code “may not survive contact with reality.” One backbench MP said several trans constituents were actively avoiding seeking medical care over fear of what ward they would be put on.
Labour MPs and the vote
One Labour MP said organisations would be worried they would be sued if they got the guidance wrong. Another said the motion would not change the law and that the Supreme Court judgment would stand unless there was legislative action.
The government has declined to grant a vote to block the guidance, so the motion is unlikely to stop the EHRC code from moving ahead on its own. For trans people, hospitals and other service providers, the immediate issue is not the court ruling itself but how the code may be applied in daily decisions about access, placement and risk.
The next pressure point is parliamentary rather than judicial: the motion now tests how far MPs are prepared to push against guidance that ministers are not letting them vote down.
