Trans people are seeking asylum abroad amid fears for their safety following last week's Supreme Court ruling, a Labour peer has claimed.
Lord Cashman told the House of Lords that some of his friends are looking to leave Britain after the country's highest court ruled that transgender women are not legally women.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on April 16 that the terms "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 refer to "a biological woman and biological sex".
Speaking in a debate in the Lords on Thursday, Lord Cashman said: "Currently, trans people in this country live in fear, they live in fear of their safety, their futures."
Lord Cashman spoke in the House of Lords
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Lord Cashman continued: "Indeed, some friends are now looking at seeking asylum in countries where they will fear not [for their] safety but where they will receive a welcome."
Baroness Smith of Malvern, the equalities minister, responded: "I very much hope that trans people will still believe that this is a country where they are welcomed, where their rights and their dignity are upheld. That is certainly the position in law."
It comes after a rise in transphobic hate crimes over the last five years. Nottinghamshire Police recorded 77 offences motivated by hostility against transgender people in the year to March 2024.
This marks an increase from 60 transphobic crimes the previous year, and 35 five years prior.
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Protests broke out across the UK over the last two weeks
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Campaigners take part in a rally organised by trans rights groups, trade unions, and community organisations at Parliament Square, central London
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Across England and Wales, while transphobic hate crimes fell slightly from 4,889 to 4,780 in the most recent year, the figure has more than doubled from the 2,329 recorded five years earlier. The Home Office noted an increase in harassment offences motivated by transphobia.
Protests have erupted across the UK in response to the ruling. In Bristol, a peaceful rally took over College Green last Saturday, with placards reading "Trans rights are human rights" and "Erased in law".
Married At First Sight star Ella Morgan told the rally: "Protecting women is absolutely at the forefront of my end goal, but discriminating against trans women isn’t the solution, and we are now more at risk."
Big Brother winner Nadia Almada revealed on Good Morning Britain that she's contemplating leaving the UK.
She said: "The whole idea that we are not women for that matter based on our sex is terrifying...The idea of waking up in a male ward - I would rather refuse treatment than be subjected to that."
Ella Morgan, from Married at First Sight UK, criticised the ruling
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Nadia Almada greets the crowd, after leaving the Big Brother house
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The ruling has significant implications for single-sex spaces. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission chairwoman Baroness Falkner, trans women cannot use single-sex female toilets, changing rooms or compete in women's sports.
The British Transport Police has adopted an interim position that "any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee."
Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested trans people could be treated in private rooms in the NHS, saying: "What we would like to see is appropriate kinds of rooms and private spaces for trans people to be cared for in NHS hospitals."
