Nadine Dorries to urge British sports to follow Fina in transgender policies

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, says she will make it “crystal clear” to British sporting bodies that competitive women’s sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex when she meets them on Tuesday to discuss their transgender policies.

Dorries will urge organisations representing football, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics and other sports to follow the lead of Fina, the governing body of swimming, by barring from female events trans women who have “gone through male puberty”.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Dorries said: “I have the greatest compassion for anyone who finds themselves living in a body they don’t recognise. But we can’t pretend that sex doesn’t matter. Sex has biological consequences. If you’re born a male, and you go through puberty as a male, your body develops natural physical advantages over a woman’s. That makes you stronger and faster.

“I’m setting a very clear line on this: competitive women’s sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex. Not someone who was born male, took puberty blockers or has suppressed testosterone, but unequivocally and unarguably someone who was born female. I want all of our sporting governing bodies to follow that policy.”

As things stand, most international sports still allow trans women to compete in the female category if they reduce their testosterone for 12 months. Similar policies are also adopted by most British sports at national level. However at the grassroots it is not uncommon for trans women to be able to self-ID into female events.

In the past week, however, there has been a seismic shift by some international governing bodies. Fina decided to change its policy after its scientific panel found that trans women had a “relative