Boris Johnson says ‘biological males’ should not compete in women’s sports

Boris Johnson has said he does not think “biological males should be competing in women’s sports”, as he set out his position on transgender issues.

The Prime Minister said the “sensible” view was that transgender athletes - such as Lia Thomas, a swimmer who won America’s top trophy in university sports last month - should not be allowed to compete alongside biological women and that children should not be allowed to decide their own gender without parental assistance.

His most comprehensive comments yet on transgender issues came days after the Government decided not to ban trans conversion therapy, as the Conservative Party promised at the last election.

Mr Johnson also said he thought it was important to have women-only spaces in hospitals, prisons and changing rooms, but admitted there were “complexities and sensitivities” around transgender issues that “still need to be worked out”.

Downing Street has faced a backlash from equalities groups since its decision to scrap the trans conversion therapy ban. It has now cancelled an LGBTQ conference that was scheduled to take place in June, on the 50th anniversary of the first Pride marches in London.

Conversion therapy attempts to change or suppress someone’s sexuality or gender identity. It is already outlawed in several other countries.

The decision also prompted the resignation of Iain Anderson, the UK’s first LGBT+ Business Champion.

Speaking on a visit to a hospital in Welwyn Garden City on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said there were “complexities and sensitivities when you move from the area of sexuality to the question of gender”.

“There, I'm afraid, are things that I think still need to be worked out,” he said.

On the issue of transgender women competing in sporting events and female-only spaces, he said: “I don’t think that biological males should be competing in female sporting events.

“Maybe that is a controversial thing to say, but it just seems to me to be sensible.

“I also think women should have spaces - whether it’s in hospitals or prisons or changing rooms or whatever - which are dedicated to women.

"That's as far as my thinking has developed on this issue. If that puts me in conflict with some others, then we have got to work it all out.”

The Telegraph understands the Government has no plans to issue any directive to sports bodies about changing their transgender guidance.

Mr Johnson’s intervention was hailed by former athletes previously branded as transphobic for calling for trans women to be excluded from female sports.

Sharron Davies, who won a swimming silver medal for Great Britain at the 1980 Olympics, told The Telegraph she was “very pleased” the Prime Minister had “seen fit to recognise a biological reality and support sexual equality in sport”.

That call was echoed by Mara Yamauchi, a former marathon runner and part Team GB at the 2008 Olympic Games and London 2012. She applauded “clear leadership from the top” amid what she branded as “weasel words” from other politicians.

Mr Johnson also said he did not believe that children should be able to choose their own gender, including by undergoing surgery to change their bodies, without assistance from their parents.

"I don't think that it's reasonable for kids to be deemed so-called Gillick-competent to take decisions about their gender or irreversible treatments that they may have,” he said.

“I think there should be parental involvement at the very least.”

Gillick competence is a medical term used to describe a child under the age of 16 who is mature enough to make their own decision about their gender, without parental consent.

In a separate interview, Sajid Javid argued that people who believe they are transgender may have either been bullied or sexually abused.

In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, the Health Secretary said “we need to be more careful" when it comes to conversion therapy for transgender people. He argued that “it is right for medical experts to be able to question that and to determine what the cause might be”.

He asked: "Is it a genuine case of gender identity dysphoria, or could it be that that individual is suffering from some child sex abuse, for example, or could it be linked to bullying?”

His comments sparked criticism from trans rights campaigners and charities, who described them as “damaging and wrong” However, he was also urged by women’s rights campaigners “to remind NHS trusts that they have a duty of care to safeguard women, who are often at their most vulnerable when they are ill”.

The Telegraph previously revealed that there was mutiny among NHS bosses who were refusing to follow guidance from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, which stated that it is lawful to exclude trans women from female-only wards in certain circumstances.