It is deeply disappointing that @UKLabour (my party) has allowed this racist & utterly regressive #Tory government to present itself as the protector of women's rights & children's safety. The current #Labour stance is wrong in so many ways it is hard to know where to begin. /1 https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1309070203377127427

Firstly we must be clear that for the Tories this is a risk-free & cynical act of political expediency that fits with their petty nationalist narrative that presents the left as an aloof "metropolitan elite". The same Tories have impoverished & marginalised women over the... /2

...past decade of austerity and they have failed to act upon the growing tide of male violence & sexual exploitation faced by women & girls. Anyone drawing the conclusion that a vote for the Tories is a vote for women is sadly mistaken. /3

Secondly, it is largely #Labour, trade union & other socialist women who have led the militant & growing movement that pushed the Tories to make the correct decision over #GRA reform. The embodiment of this movement has been @Womans_Place_UK who have worked tirelessly and... /4

...unselfishly with a wide range of women's organisations and individuals from academia, the media, professional bodies and across the political spectrum. This under constant attack from political leaders, sections of the left, the liberal media & even the police. /5

Thirdly, the political cowardice in the upper echelons of #Labour that has led to this debacle goes from left to right. Socialists like myself expect career politicians from the centre & right of the party to act with cynical opportunism, but this has also infected the left. /6

#JeremyCorbyn comes out less badly than others as he at least sought an accommodation on women's & trans rights in the party. Thanks to @Lachlan_Edi this bore some positive fruit in the form of #Labour's 2019 manifesto. His account is a must-read: https://medium.com/@lachlanstuart/the-confessions-of-a-transphobe-b4942c06e6e4 /7

But on the other side much damage has been done: #Labour women activists have been demoralised, have left the party or been hounded out, the party has been made to look foolish by the incoherent pronouncements of MPs like Dawn Butler on #sex & #gender and not only have... /8

...women's rights, both inside and outside of the party, been damaged but so have trans people's rights: because of the vile misogynistic tactics used to silence socialist women & the rejection of reasonable accommodation trans liberation politics has been discredited. /9

In conclusion, now is the time to take this fight into the #Labour party as it is the only party right now that has any chance of becoming the defender of both women's & trans rights. As my sisters & comrades from @LabWomenDec say: #DontLeaveOrganise!
#SexMatters /10 END