Rebecca Long-Bailey, the far-left candidate to replace Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party, has signed a pledge that she would expel people who have expressed “bigoted” or “transphobic views” from the party.
The ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate signed a 12 point pledge from the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights, which demands supporters accept “trans women are women, trans men are men” and calls for the “expulsion” of those who do not accept the premise from the Labour Party.
The document says that supporters must: “Accept that there is no material conflict between trans rights and women’s rights, and that all trans women are subject to misogyny and patriarchal oppression.”
Writing in support of the pledge, Long-Bailey wrote: “Please sign to show your support for the trans and non-binary community, for whom the Labour Party should always be a safe space.”
Ms Long-Bailey was joined by other prominent women in the Labour Party in signing the pledge, including Angela Rayner, Dawn Butler, and fellow leadership candidate Lisa Nandy, according to The Guardian.
The document said: “As the party which stands for socialism, the Labour Party must play an active and crucial role in the fight for transgender liberation.”
“There are still transphobes in our ranks, and we have often failed to act as transphobia has gained ground within our party,” it added.
The document also labels Woman’s Place UK and the LGB Alliance as “transphobic” and urges supporters to “organise and fight against” them as well as “other trans-exclusionist hate groups”.
Representatives from Woman’s Place UK denied that their organisation is transphobic, releasing a statement that demanded the Labour Party either “defend us or expel us”.
“We are extremely concerned by the scurrilous mischaracterisation of Woman’s Place UK as a ‘transphobic organisation’ and a ‘hate group’ by some individuals and groups in the Labour Party, including leading figures in the current leadership election. These are accusations we absolutely refute and which we believe to be defamatory,” they said.
“We call on those making such accusations against us to provide evidence for these claims or withdraw them,” Woman’s Place UK added.
The pledge also received considerable backlash on Twitter under the hashtag #ExpelMe, by members of the Labour Party who felt excluded by the far-left stance on transgenderism.
Maya Forstater, who lost her job at the Centre for Global Development for tweeting that “men cannot change into women,” said in response to the pledge: “I do not believe male people can be women. If ‘trans rights’ means males in women’s single-sex spaces, sports [and] associations there is a conflict w[ith] women’s rights.”
Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka
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