Keir Starmer says SNP and Westminster using gender recognition bill for political advantage – UK politics live

LIVE – Updated at 11:44 Labour leader tells LBC issue is being used as a political football after Scottish Tory MSP urges PM not to block bill.  

11:44 On the Today programme this morning Shami Chakrabarti, who was shadow attorney general when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, said that, while she was

“sympathetic” to the aims of Scotland’s gender recognition bill, the UK government was entitled to argue that it had UK-wide implications. She said: Whilst I am

sympathetic to the change that is made to make the rights of trans people in Scotland, I think we may have a clash between the position in the UK-wide legislation and the position

in Scotland … [The legislation] may mean – even though I suspect political mischief on the part of the Conservative government and culture wars – they may have a point. It

is arguable, at least, that what’s happened in Scotland has a potential impact on the legislation as it operates UK-wide. This is the argument that the UK

government is expected to use if, as reported, it blocks the Scottish bill, under a procedure that has never been used before since the Scottish parliament was created more than

23 years ago. Starmer suggests SNP and Tories both exploiting gender recognition bill for political advantage 11:43 This is what Keir Starmer said in his LBC

interview about Scotland’s gender recognition reform bill, and the UK government’s reported intention to block it. Starmer suggested the SNP and the Tories were both

exploiting the Scottish gender recognition bill for political advantage. He said: