Political opinion: Mary Glindon MP. Supreme Court ruling on women's rights welcome

The long and bitter discussion, often an ugly shouting match, over the conflicts between women’s rights and those of transgender people has finally been settled. The Supreme Court, the highest in the land, has unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex.

The ruling is clear. Transgender women are not legally women. The terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act referred to biological sex, not acquired gender. The “concept of sex is binary.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission will rewrite its code of practice so service providers, public bodies, and associations understand their duties under the Equality Act and put them into practice.

The NHS will consider the ruling when it updates its policies on same-sex wards.

Transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate.” These could include female-only toilets, changing rooms and hostels.

Labour Women’s Declaration, a gender-critical group, urges the government to take concrete action to ensure the judgment is fully reflected in all public sector guidance.

Most people will be relieved rather than triumphant that the Supreme Court has brought a halt to damaging practices that damaged women’s rights in work, leisure, and sport.

I know that some people will be disappointed. But I am very pleased that the Supreme Court also made it clear that it advises against reading this judgment as a triumph for one or more groups in our society at the expense of another – “it is not."

I have found the debate very difficult for many years thanks to the actions of a minority of people who have refused to even discuss the inherent conflict with women’s rights and who have hounded some out of their work.

The poisonous polarisation is finally over. Women’s rights are rightly fully protected. Transwomen and transmen have the right to be treated fairly. We should now move on to make sure all are respected.