Labour cancels its women’s conference after supreme court gender ruling

Ellie Reeves, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner at last year’s Labour conference. The women’s conference was scheduled to take place before the party’s conference in September. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau

Labour has cancelled its national women’s conference and restricted all-women shortlists as it awaits full guidance from the equalities watchdog, drawing criticism from transgender rights and gender-critical campaigners.

The party’s governing body, the national executive committee (NEC), met on Tuesday to sign off plans to cancel the women’s conference, which was due to take place before the party’s annual conference in Liverpool in September.