Rishi Sunak has distanced himself from the position of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on biological sex.
The Prime Minister was asked where he stood on the issue in an interview by ConservativeHome after Sir Keir came under fire for saying that 99% of women "of course haven't got a penis".
In reply, Sunak said he had a "slightly different point of view" to Sir Keir on this issue.
Pressed on whether he believed 100 per cent of women do not have a penis, the Prime Minister answered: "Yes, of course."
He continued, "We should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about their gender ... but when it comes to these issues of protecting women's rights, women's spaces, I think the issue of biological sex is fundamentally important when we think about those questions.
"As a general operating principle for me, biological sex is vitally, fundamentally important to these questions – we can't forget that – and that's why we need to make sure, particularly when it comes to women's health, women's sports or indeed women's spaces, that we are protecting those rights and those spaces."
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has advised the government to change the wording in the Equality Act to protect "biological sex" instead of "sex".
Mr Sunak has expressed his support for revisions to the Act to make it easier to exclude trans people from women-only spaces.
