Anti-trans campaigners are threatening to resign en masse from the Labour Party over a trans-inclusive policy that is expected to be greenlit by party officials. The UK’s Labour Party has faced a vicious battle over the past few months over the status of transgender women in the party.

After a surge in anti-trans rhetoric, a fringe group of women’s rights campaigners within the party had led calls for transgender women to be banned from standing on the party’s women-only shortlists for Parliament, which are used in a bid to boost the number of female MPs.

There has never been an openly trans MP, but vocal activists complain that women they refer to as “male-bodied transgenders” are taking other women’s places in politics.

The row has come to a head today, after the Equalities subcommittee of the ruling National Executive Committee greenlit a statement rebuffing the activists’ demands, and vowing to keep the party trans-inclusive.

A copy of the statement, leaked ahead of the meeting to HuffPost, makes clear that “the Labour Party continues to have an inclusive definition of women”, and explicitly affirms that “All Women Shortlists and women’s reserved places are open to self-defining women”. It also warns that “transphobia and the abuse of members based on their trans identity will not be tolerated in the Labour Party”. Read more via Pink News