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JK Rowling has said she will “struggle to support” Labour if Sir Keir Starmer keeps his current stance on gender recognition.

The Harry Potter author has authored a 2,000-word essay in The Times in which she outlines her dissatisfaction with the Labour Party‘s current position.

In the piece, she criticises Sir Keir, as well as shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy and shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry.

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Rowling has been outspoken in her belief that biological women should be able to have separate spaces, and trans women – who were born male – should not be allowed access.

She has been criticised for her position, being widely condemned in recent years for her views on transgender rights, for example claiming that she would rather go to jail than refer to a trans person by their preferred pronouns.

Transgender newsreader India Willoughby recently responded to comments by Rowling as “genuinely disgusted”.

She added: “Grotesque transphobia, which is upsetting. I am every bit as much a woman as JK Rowling.”

Daniel Radcliffe, who became a worldwide star after playing schoolboy wizard Harry in the blockbuster adaptations of the novels, has also criticised her views, and said in an interview last month that the fallout with Rowling “makes me really sad“.

JK Rowling and India Willoughby
Pic: Reuters/PA
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JK Rowling and India Willoughby. Pic: Reuters/PA

JK Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe at the UK premiere of Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004.
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JK Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe at the UK premiere of Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004. Pic: PA

In the article, the author speaks about how she thought she “misheard” Sir Keir in 2021 when he criticised Labour candidate Rosie Duffield for saying only women have a cervix.

Sir Keir was asked about this statement in a recent leaders debate, at which point he said he agreed with Sir Tony Blair that women have vaginas and men have penises.

Rowling says she felt the Labour leader gave “the impression that until Tony Blair sat him down for a chat, he’d never understood how he and his wife had come to produce children”.

She added that she “really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt”.

In her article, Rowling claims to “have been a Labour voter, a member (no longer), donor (not recently) and campaigner (ditto) all my adult life” – and she wants to see the end of the Conservative government.

According to Electoral Commission records, she gave £1m to the party in 2008, and £8,000 in 2015.

Read more:
Troll who threatened to kill Rowling and Duffield avoids jail
Rowling accuses Starmer of ‘misrepresenting equalities law’
Starmer says 99.9% of women ‘haven’t got a penis’

In the article, the author highlighted Ms Dodds for saying what a woman is “depends on what the context is”.

Ms Cooper is criticised for saying she was “not going to get into rabbit holes on this”.

Rowling points to Ms Thornberry for saying: “some women will have penises. Frankly, I’m not looking up their skirts, I don’t care”.

And Mr Lammy draws ire for saying women like Rowling are “dinosaurs hoarding rights”.

David Lammy MP calls for immediate humanitarian ceasefire
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David Lammy is among those who Rowling criticised

The Harry Potter author also claims Mr Lammy said that a cervix is “something you can have following various procedures and hormone treatments”.

Rowling wrote: “It’s very hard not to suspect that some of these men don’t know what a cervix is, but consider it too unimportant to Google.”

The NHS definition of the cervix is the opening between the vagina and the womb.

Rowling says the debate for “left-leaning” women like herself “isn’t, and never has been, about trans people enjoying the rights of every other citizen, and being free to present and identify however they wish”.

Instead, she says it is “about the right of women and girls to assert their boundaries”.

She adds: “It’s about freedom of speech and observable truth.

“It’s about waiting, with dwindling hope, for the left to wake up to the fact that its lazy embrace of a quasi-religious ideology is having calamitous consequences.”

The author says she met a mother of a girl with learning difficulties who was “smeared as a bigot and a transphobe for wanting female-only intimate care” for her.

“I cannot vote for any politician who takes issue with that mother’s words,” Rowling adds.

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She concludes: “An independent candidate is standing in my constituency who’s campaigning to clarify the Equality Act.

“Perhaps that’s where my X will have to go on 4 July.

“As long as Labour remains dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain the rights their foremothers thought were won for all time, I’ll struggle to support them.

“The women who wouldn’t wheesht didn’t leave Labour. Labour abandoned them.”

Earlier in the day, Sir Keir ruled out lifting the block on the Scottish government’s controversial gender reforms.

Sky News has approached the Labour Party for comment.

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ECB adviser doubts digital euro can match US dollar stablecoins

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ECB adviser doubts digital euro can match US dollar stablecoins

ECB adviser doubts digital euro can match US dollar stablecoins

The European Central Bank may rely on regulated euro stablecoins and private innovation to counter the dominance of US dollar stablecoins, says adviser Jürgen Schaaf.

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Democrats probe housing regulator over considering crypto in mortgages

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Democrats probe housing regulator over considering crypto in mortgages

Democrats probe housing regulator over considering crypto in mortgages

A group of Senate Democrats has probed Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte over his order to propose how to consider crypto in mortgage applications.

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Sir Keir Starmer set for Donald Trump trade talks as PM walks diplomatic line between EU allies and US on Gaza

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Sir Keir Starmer set for Donald Trump trade talks as PM walks diplomatic line between EU allies and US on Gaza

Gaza and transatlantic trade are set to dominate talks between Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer when the pair meet in Scotland on Monday.

Downing Street said the prime minister would discuss “what more can be done to secure the ceasefire [in the Middle East] urgently”, during the meeting at the president’s Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire.

Talks in Qatar over a ceasefire ended on Thursday after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams.

Mr Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations as he left the US for Scotland, saying the militant group “didn’t want to make a deal… they want to die”.

Sir Keir has tried to forge close personal ties with the president, frequently praising his actions on the world stage despite clear foreign policy differences between the US and UK.

The approach seemed to pay off in May when Mr Trump announced the agreement of a trade deal with the UK that would see several tariffs lowered.

The two leaders are expected to discuss this agreement when they meet, with the prime minister likely to press the president for a lowering of outstanding tariffs on imports such as steel.

Prior to the visit, the White House said the talks would allow them to “refine the historic US-UK trade deal”.

Extracting promises from the president on the Middle East may be harder though.

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Should aid be dropped into Gaza?

Despite some reports that Mr Trump is growing frustrated with Israel, there is a clear difference in tone between the US and its Western allies.

As he did over the Ukraine war, Sir Keir will have to walk a diplomatic line between the UK’s European allies and the White House.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, the first member of the G7 to do so.

That move was dismissed by Mr Trump, who said it “doesn’t carry any weight”.

Read more from Sky News:
US and EU agree trade deal – with bloc facing 15% tariffs
Geldof accuses Israel of ‘lying’ about Gaza starvation

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Trump: ‘It doesn’t matter what Macron says’

The UK, French and German leaders spoke over the weekend and agreed to work together on the “next phase” in Gaza that would see transitional governance and security arrangements put in place, alongside the large-scale delivery of aid.

Under pressure from members of his own party and cabinet to follow France and signal formal recognition of Palestine, Sir Keir has gradually become more critical of Israel in recent months.

On Friday, the prime minister said “the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible”.

Government sources say UK recognition is a matter of “when, not if”, however, it’s thought Downing Street wants to ensure any announcement is made at a time when it can have the greatest diplomatic impact.

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Baby Zainab starved to death in Gaza

Cabinet ministers will be convened in the coming days, during the summer recess, to discuss the situation in Gaza.

The UK has also been working with Jordan to air drop supplies, after Israel said it would allow foreign countries to provide aid to the territory.

President Trump’s trip to Scotland comes ahead of his second state visit to the UK in September.

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Downing Street says Ukraine will also likely be discussed in the meeting with both men reflecting on what can be done to force Russia back to the negotiating table.

After the meeting at Turnberry, the prime minister will travel with the president to Aberdeen for a private engagement.

Mr Trump is also expected to meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney while in the country.

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