No Merseyside-based MPs voted to support the Gender Recognition Bill.
The bill would change the process to get a gender recognition certificate (GFC) - a document that legally recognises a person’s gender is not the gender they were assigned at birth, but is their “acquired gender”.
It would have simplified the process for trans people by lowering the age limit from 18 to 16, removing the need for a medical diagnosis and evidence of having lived for two years in their acquired gender.
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The bill passed with a large majority by the Scottish Parliament in December. However, on Tuesday, January 17, Rishi Sunak announced the UK would use a Section 35 order to block the controversial Scottish bill on the grounds it would impede the operation of the UK Equality Act.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called the move a "full-frontal attack" on the Scottish Parliament and vowed to oppose it. She said the Scottish ministers would "defend" the bill, warning if the veto succeeded it would be the "first of many", according to the BBC.
The block came after Keir Starmer suggested that 16-year-olds are too young to change their legally recognised gender. The UK Labour leader had voiced "concerns" about the Scottish government's reforms to the process, citing a potential impact on UK-wide equalities law.
In Merseyside, all MPs except one abstained from the vote. Tory MP for Southport, Damien Moore, voted on the Section 35 order blocking Scotland’s gender recognition bill. The region's Labour MPs followed all but 11 of their party colleagues by not voting at all.
According to the UK parliament website, members who did not have a vote recorded and were not tellers included the likes of Wavertree’s Paula Barker, West Derby’s Ian Byrne, Walton’s Dan Carden and Bootle’s Peter Dowd. As the vote was "to note", the outcome would not have changed anything even if it had passed.
The website suggests this can be due to a number of reasons; a member may wish to abstain or have a procedural reason for not voting, and members can be absent carrying out constituency or ministerial business, or be unable to attend for other reasons.
As of now, Angela Eagle, an openly gay Labour MP, appears to be the only local MP to have addressed their absence. The representative for Wallasey, who had prior arrangements and was paired for this vote, reiterated her support for trans people on Twitter.
She penned: “The Government’s decision today to veto new arrangements for gender recognition in Scotland is appalling and just the latest of their decision problematise trans people.
“I was unable to attend the SO20 debate today due to prior diary commitments but am unwavering in my support for the trans community, and the need to reform the GRA to enable trans people to live their lives free of prejudice & discrimination. As a proud women, lesbian and feminist I continue to stand with my trans siblings & see no competition between their fight for rights and respect, and my own.”
The current process for obtaining a GRC is set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004. The bill aimed to amend that act to make a new process in Scotland and sets out: who can apply for a GRC, how to make an application, and the grounds on which an application is to be granted.
It also made provisions about the different types of GRCs that may be issued in different circumstances, appeals and reviews of decisions to grant (or not grant) GRCs and revocation of a GRC and offences in connection with false information being provided in an application.
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