Did Keir Starmer finally realise what being a leader meant this summer? No, not the Labour leader’s heroic rescue of a lost dog while on holiday, but his decision to enter the bitter gender debate and back a reversal of his party’s policy on allowing people to self-declare a new gender identity on official documents.
For the past few years, Starmer has largely avoided talking about it, save to complain that the debate is “too toxic”. It certainly has far too much poison in it, but Starmer is one of the people with the most power to change that by coaxing the debate in a better direction. It’s just taken him a while. There has been a visible change in the party since its national policy forum dropped the self-identification policy in July. Its MPs and activists now say they feel more confident in saying biological sex is important, after years of fearing a furious backlash from across the party.
