FOUR UNIONS BOYCOTT LABOUR WOMEN'S CONFERENCE OVER TRANS BAN

Four unions affiliated to the Labour Party have announced they will boycott the Labour Women's Conference this year in protest at a ban on trans women attending the main sessions. Unison, Usdaw, Aslef and the Musicians' Union confirmed they would not send delegates to the event, scheduled to take place in Liverpool on the eve of the party's main conference in September. The unions stated that Labour's policy breaches their own equalities provisions, with some actively campaigning for changes to the law governing the definition of a woman.

Labour's decision to restrict the main hall to biological women follows a Supreme Court ruling in April last year that defined a woman by biological sex under equalities law. The party subsequently cancelled the 2025 women's conference entirely whilst awaiting guidance from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. That guidance, approved by ministers, interpreted the law as meaning trans women should not use single-sex spaces. Labour's National Executive Committee then agreed that references to "woman" or "women" must be interpreted on the basis of biological sex. Fringe meetings at this year's conference will remain unrestricted.

Labour states it considers the ban the least restrictive means of balancing accessibility with compliance with the April ruling. The annual women's conference traditionally brings together hundreds of activists, MPs, councillors and supporters to increase women's involvement in party policy-making. The boycott affects four of the eleven unions officially affiliated to Labour, which collectively fund the party.