JK Rowling attacks Labour leader Keir Starmer after he says ‘trans women are women’

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has accused Sir Keir Starmer of misrepresenting equalities law, claiming Labour can “no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights”.

Sir Keir told The Times “trans women are women” according to statute in the UK, and called for a more “considered, respectful, tolerant debate” about gender.

But Rowling said he had misrepresented the law, which she said indicated “the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights”.

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Sharing an article on Twitter about a Tory police and crime commissioner reportedly reprimanded for her comments on gender issues, she said: “I don’t think our politicians have the slightest idea how much anger is building among women from all walks of life at the attempts to threaten and intimidate them out of speaking publicly about their own rights, their own bodies and their own lives.

“Among the thousands of letters and emails I’ve received are disillusioned members of Labour, the Greens, the Lib Dems and the SNP. Women are scared, outraged and angry at the deaf ear turned to their well-founded concerns. But women are organising.

“Now @Keir_Starmer publicly misrepresents equalities law, in yet another indication that the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women’s rights. But I repeat: women are organising across party lines, and their resolve and their anger are growing.”

Rowling appeared to be referring to comments attributed to the Labour leader in an article in The Times.

Asked to define a woman, he told the newspaper: “A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law.

“It has been the