Quite right!: the 'wickedness' of Labour's gender war

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🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

This week: After leaked EHRC guidance threw Labour’s position on biological sex into disarray, Michael and Maddie ask whether Bridget Phillipson is deliberately delaying clarity on the law – and why Wes Streeting appears to be retreating from his once ‘gender-critical’ stance. Is Labour quietly preparing to water down long-awaited guidance? And has the return of puberty-blocker trials pushed the culture war back to square one?

Then: Shabana Mahmood unveils her first major moves as Home Secretary. But as the Labour left cries foul and legal challenges loom, Michael and Maddie assess whether her plans will really bring order to the asylum system – or whether Labour’s attachment to ‘process over principle’ will scupper the reforms before they bite. Is Mahmood the Iron Lady Labour never expected? Or is this simply Starmerism in its purest form: government by quango, review and delay?

And finally: Christmas arrives early… far too early. Michael sets out the case for a ‘dry Advent and festive January’, while Maddie laments Black Friday brawls and the loss of an older, saner rhythm to the year.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiteright

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Subscribe to The Spectator in our Black Friday Flash Sale and you'll get 12 weeks of the magazine, along with full access to all of our online content, for just £12. Not only that, but we'll also send you a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label Whiskey worth £30 on the shops, absolutely free.
0:18.3	Hurry though, this ridiculously good offer, ends on the 1st of December.
0:22.6	Go to www.
0:25.3	Spectator.com.ukuk forward slash Friday.
0:36.2	Hello and welcome to Quite Right. My name is Michael Gove and I'm editor of The Spectator.
0:41.2	And I'm Madeleine Grant, assistant editor and parliamentary sketchwriter at The Spectator.
0:45.2	And this week we'll be looking at trans wars, asylum madness and Christmas craziness.
0:56.8	This week, Michael, the government has delayed publishing its guidance following the Supreme
1:01.5	Court's ruling on gender. We know this because the times have leaked part of the
1:06.5	equality watchdog, the EHRC's report last week. Why is the government dragging its heels?
1:12.2	I think that there's a manoeuvre here on the part of Bridget Phillipson,
1:16.5	who, as well as being Education Secretary,
1:18.0	is the Minister for Women on Equality's in the Cabinet.
1:20.9	I think that she is waiting for the current head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission,
1:26.7	a marvellous woman called Kishwa Fultner, to stand down and her turn... for the current head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, a marvelous one called
1:27.7	Kishua Faulkner, to stand down and her term is coming to an end, there's a new Labour appointee
1:35.0	who's going to be in place. And I think that there's a desire on Bridget Philipson's part
1:41.7	to water down or dilute the clarity of the guidance that has been
1:47.9	produced by the EHRC following on from a judgment in the Supreme Court which affirmed the importance
1:53.9	of biological sex. And the reason why Bridget Phillipson might want to water this down is because
1:58.9	the Labour Party is fundamentally split and there is a significant
2:02.9	group, probably a majority, on the backbenchers who dislike the Supreme Court judgment,
	...

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