Edited by Deepali Verma
Bharatiya origin British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing flak for taking a jibe against Labour Party (Opposition) leader Keir Starmer, stating that the latter could not define who or what a woman was. The Parliamentary exchange was also attended by murdered transgender Brianna Ghey’s mother.
Brianna Ghey was subject to stabbing 28 times with a hunting knife. Starmer had invited Ghey’s mother to watch PM Sunak’s weekly question-and-answer session in parliament.
In a presumably declining popularity of Rishi Sunak, he may have possibly managed to add salt to the wound with his tongue-in-cheek comment about women with the mother of a slain transgender person in attendance.
During an exchange with Labour leader Keir Starmer, PM Rishi Sunak remarked that “defining a woman” was on a list of the Labour Party leader’s broken promises, joking it had been “only 99% of a U-turn”.
PM Rishi Sunak further added saying that “a man is a man and a woman is a woman” and criticised Starmer, saying he “still does not know what a woman is”. This jibe by PM Sunak came in reference to a comment from Starmer, when questioned about his views on transgender issues last April, that 99.9% of women “of course haven’t got a penis”.
The reply from Labour Party leader Starmer was, “Of all the weeks to say that, when Brianna’s mother is in this chamber. Shame. He is parading as a man of integrity when he’s got absolutely no responsibility.”
The Press Secretary of Rishi Sunak said that the prime minister had been listing Labour’s U-turns and to do so was “totally legitimate”. She stated that she did not accept that it was a transphobic remark, reported Reuters.
Sky News reported on the night of February 7 that the father of the murdered teenager, Peter Spooner, remarked that he was shocked by the prime minister’s comments and had a feeling that he “should apologise for his remarks”.
Towards the end of the session, PM Rishi Sunak did pay tribute to Ghey’s mother, saying: “What happened was unspeakable as well as a shocking tragedy…
“Standing in the face of that, for her mother to showcase the compassion and empathy that she did last weekend, I thought was the very best of humanity in the face of witnessing the very worst of humanity, and she deserves all our admiration and praise for that.”
