Olympian Sharron Davies has criticised Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson for failing to implement the Supreme Court’s ruling on women’s rights.
She told GB News: “I have to say it is disappointing. We constantly get told that they are going to implement the law and you’d like to think, when we have a Prime Minister who’s supposed to be a lawyer, that he would actually really value the law, but it seems as if he only seems to value international law, not British law.
“It is really disappointing, obviously, hugely disappointing. And I can’t tell you how excited we all were when we heard those words. What was law was Stonewall law. It wasn’t the UK law. And what the Supreme Court did one year ago, as you well know, they didn’t create any new laws. They just clarified what the law that had always been, that the Equality Act was based on biological sex.
“So what happened was that our women’s rights had just been taken from us without any of our permission or sort of any even feedback or conversations with us. And we would turn around and all of a sudden we’ve got men in our sports and we’ve got men in our changing rooms, and we just had no say about it, and any woman that came out and spoke was ostracised and canceled, and their life was made absolutely hell.
“What’s so frustrating is that the only way we can get these laws applied is to keep going back to court. We keep having to crowdfund, to raise money to go and get the law applied. And that is what this government should be doing, is applying the law.
“Bridget Phillipson has been an utter disgrace. This guidance has been sat on her desk now for months and months and months. She herself has said the law is in place and it doesn’t change the law, so get the guidance out, and she’s come up with ridiculous excuses.
“I think risk assessment was one of them, where there was no risk assessment when they put men in women’s changing rooms, and the other one was cost assessment. Well, it’s not the government’s job to decide if it costs too much, we’re not going to implement the law.
“Stupid excuses constantly, and now they can’t put it on the table because we’ve got an election coming up.
“One excuse after another, kicking the can down the road constantly. We’re just going to have to keep on going to court and if, in the world of sport, that’s what we have to do, when that will be the next thing that we do do.”
