Trans women should be banned from all female physical sport, Kemi Badenoch has said today.
The Conservative leader said trans women should not be allowed to compete in sports where their physical attributes might give them an advantage.
Athletics, cycling and aquatics have implemented outright bans on transgender women taking part in women's events in recent years while other governing bodies allow them to compete, such as football.
The Government and other authorities are presenting rewriting guidance on how to treat women and trans women after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a woman is defined as a biological female, after years of debate and argument.
Kemi Badenoch called for a total ban on trans women competing against biological women in physical sport
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Asked by GB News' political editor whether all women's sports now only be accessible to biological females, she said: "Yes."
Pressed if this was a ban "across the board", she replied: "If the sport is biological, then yes. If it is something like chess, where it's not to do with physical attributes, I think that we can have exceptions there.
"But at the end of the day, it's very obvious you shouldn't have men boxing women.
"You shouldn't have men swimming or running against women, we are biologically different, and that's something that needs to be recognized by all the sporting bodies."
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In one example, Badenoch said 'it's very obvious you shouldn't have men boxing women'
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Badenoch defended her record on women's rights during her time in the last Tory Government, saying that the row had erupted because "judges had also been changing the definition".
She said: "I spent my entire time as equalities minister really fighting on this issue."
She added: "This went to the Supreme Court because at a lower court, a different ruling was given.
"This case has been going on for years. I believe it started in 2018, long before I became equalities minister.
"And there were many other things which I did when I was in Government.
"You look at what happened in Scotland, where they were bringing in full self-ID. I was the one who stopped that, bringing in that section 35 judgment.
"I also supported a lot of the people who had been working on these cases, and I was bringing in legislation to emphasize the sex and Equality Act was biological, just as the snap election was called. I wasn't expecting that."
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Campaigners celebrated Wednesday's ruling outside the Supreme CourtPAAsked if she wanted the Gender Recognition Act to be scrapped, she replied: "This is something that you would need a parliamentary review on.
"A lot of what's going on is actually people misinterpreting the law and saying the law says things that it doesn't mean.
"The Gender Recognition Act was brought in at a specific time before same sex marriage. We often have reviews of legislation. This is something that we can do again."
