Four of the eleven unions officially affiliated with the Labour Party have announced that they will boycott the Labour Women’s Conference this year. Unison, Aslef, Usdaw, and the Musicians’ Union cited the party’s decision to ban trans women from attending the event.
The news follows Labour’s cancellation of the 2025 women’s conference after the Supreme Court’s ruling that ‘woman’ refers to sex-assigned-at-birth under the Equality Act 2010.
‘Compliance with the law’
In December, the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) then took a vote to formally exclude trans women from proceedings at the women’s conference.
Note, particularly, that the trans ban at the conference doesn’t apply only to the creation of ‘all women shortlists’, where the Equality Act might be most clearly applicable. Labour have ruled that trans women won’t be allowed in the main conference hall itself, quite literally relegating trans women to the fringe.
A party spokesperson claimed that:
This reflects our commitment to addressing the under-representation of women in the Party and compliance with the law.
Violating ‘policy on trans inclusion’
However, the High Court has since ruled that the law doesn’t require even ‘single-sex’ spaces like bathrooms to exclude trans women. In this light, Labour’s argument that it must exclude trans people from even entering the conference hall seems laughable at best.
Conversely, if the party’s intention is to generate an artificially transphobic consensus from its women’s conference, the blanket ban becomes a lot more understandable.
In reaction to the discriminatory decision, the boycotting unions stated that their attendance would violate their policies of trans inclusion. A Unison spokesperson said:
The union’s decided against sending a delegation to Labour women’s conference this year.
This is because the party’s restrictions on access run counter to UNISON’s policy on trans equality.
Likewise, the Metroquoted a representative of shop worker’s union Usdaw explaining that:
The union’s decided against sending a delegation to Labour women’s conference this year.
This is because the party has excluded trans women, which runs counter to Usdaw’s policy on trans equality.
The Musician’s union simply stated that it has a “long-standing policy of trans inclusion”.
‘No real justification’
Whilst a less actively transphobic Labour Party might be embarrassed by its union backers criticising its nakedly discriminatory policy, we’re long past that point. However, the unions are also some of Labour’s most significant financial backers, which gives their dissent more weight.
Unison is Labour’s second largest union donor, contributing nearly £26m to the party since 2010. Usdaw gave just over £23m in the same period, making it the fourth-largest donor.
Meanwhile, trans-positive organisations have also raised their voices against the Labour policy. Grassroots group Labour for Trans Rights stated that:
For decades, trans women members have had a home in Labour’s structures, and it’s not acceptable that they’re being so blatantly excluded.
The trade union movement – including the Labour-affiliated unions – have been incredible allies to the trans community.
Likewise, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance director Alexandra Parmar-Yee said:
Clearly, there’s no real justification for banning trans women from a conference; this is just one example of a broken legal framework for trans equality.
For trans people, access to everyday public life is becoming harder and less safe – while organisations like businesses, charities and the NHS are getting caught in the crossfire of endless legal cases.
Andy Burnham can fix this, putting this issue to bed with a fair and workable approach, but if he doesn’t act this will end up being Labour’s legacy on LGBTQ+ rights for generations to come.
Feature image via the Canary
By Grace
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