'Self ID by another name': Tories seize on Labour's plan to 'water down gender rules so one GP can sign off legal sex change' - after SNP descended into chaos over trans issues
- Proposed changes intend to make gender change process 'less medicalised'
- Labour said it intends to strip out the 'futile and dehumanising' parts of process
- But equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said Labour was 'weaponising' the issue
Labour has been accused of wanting bring in 'self ID by another name' after it emerged a single GP could sign off gender change.
The party is looking to 'simplify' the process with suggestions a family doctor could take a decision rather than a panel of medical professionals.
Labour insists getting a gender recognition certificate should be 'less medicalised', with reports that spouses will no longer be able to object.
But Tories branded the idea 'ridiculous', saying 'Labour still don't know what a woman is'. Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said there was no justification for removing 'safeguards'.
The proposals, as reported by the Times, stop short of those mooted by the SNP in Scotland, which would have seen doctors removed altogether from the process.
However, there will be concerns Labour could face a similar backlash to that suffered by the separatists.
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Shadow women and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds said Labour's proposals to simplify legally changing gender intend to 'strip out the futile and dehumanising parts of the process'
![Ms Badenoch warned Labour must 'stop trying to weaponise this issue and allow professionals to do their job properly'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/10/85093051-13437885-image-a-12_1716196693064.jpg)
Ms Badenoch warned Labour must 'stop trying to weaponise this issue and allow professionals to do their job properly'
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/10/85092985-13437885-image-a-13_1716196699949.jpg)
![Tories branded the idea 'ridiculous', saying 'Labour still don't know what a woman is'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/10/85092967-13437885-image-a-14_1716196701969.jpg)
Tories branded the idea 'ridiculous', saying 'Labour still don't know what a woman is'
Shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds said the plans would address the needs of transgender people, while protecting biological women.
She said: 'This means stripping out the futile and dehumanising parts of the process for obtaining a gender recognition certificate, while retaining important safeguards.'
However, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs questioned why the medical panel would be removed in favour of a single family doctor, who might lack the capacity or specialism to sign off such a document.
She said: 'For most GPs, detailed management of gender dysphoria is outside of our area of expertise.'
Ms Badenoch warned Labour must 'stop trying to weaponise this issue and allow professionals to do their job properly'.
'There is no reason whatsoever to relax the safeguards that are in place,' she said.
Under current legislation, a gender recognition certificate can be obtained by anyone aged 18 or over, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and is living as their affirmed gender for at least two years, with the intention to live in this gender for the rest of their life.
Having a certificate means the person can update their birth or adoption certificate, if it was registered in the UK, as well as get married or form a civil partnership in their affirmed gender.
They can also have their affirmed gender on their death certificate.
Labour's proposals are likely to alarm those who are concerned with how children and young people with gender dysphoria are managed.
Last month, campaigners demanded 'cowboy clinics' dishing out powerful puberty blockers to trans children should be banned after they were strongly criticised in a landmark medical review.
Ministers have pledged to 'look carefully' at a ban on private clinics after an independent report by expert paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass expressed concern over their behaviour.
Dr Cass's review found GPs were 'pressurised to prescribe hormones' by patients who had seen a private clinician.
The report, which ran to nearly 400 pages, issued a stern warning over 'the use of unregulated medications and of providers that are not regulated within the UK'.
And Dr Cass said GPs should resist attempts by private providers to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones, 'particularly if that private provider is acting outside NHS guidance'.
There was no good evidence to support the use of puberty blockers, with gender medicine 'built on shaky foundations', the review said.
![Labour's proposals to 'simplify' the process of changing gender are likely to alarm those who are concerned with how children and young people with gender dysphoria are managed. Pictured: Dr Hilary Cass, whose review found GPs were 'pressurised to prescribe hormones' by patients who had seen a private clinician](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/20/02/83432627-13436613-Dr_Hilary_Cass_s_review_found_GPs_were_pressurised_to_prescribe_-a-27_1716167039843.jpg)
Labour's proposals to 'simplify' the process of changing gender are likely to alarm those who are concerned with how children and young people with gender dysphoria are managed. Pictured: Dr Hilary Cass, whose review found GPs were 'pressurised to prescribe hormones' by patients who had seen a private clinician