After last week’s momentous Supreme Court ruling that men who pretend to be women aren’t really women, Sir Keir Starmer has finally broken his silence to do a full U-turn on his previous opinion that “trans women are women”. Asked by a journalist on April 22nd whether he would repeat that statement, the Prime Minister said the ruling had “answered that question” and that he was “really pleased” with the “much-needed clarity” it brought, adding that it was now time to “move on”.

Downing Street was subsequently asked if Sir Keir still believes that “trans women are women”, with his official spokesman responding: “No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman. That is set out clearly by the court judgment.”

His comments came just hours after the Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson welcomed the ruling, saying trans women should use male toilets, adding that “services should be accessed on the basis of biological sex”.

Phillipson appears to be another fickle politician blowing with the prevailing wind, since only last year she said in an interview on Times Radio that trans-identifying men with a Gender Recognition Certificate should use female toilets.

Many gender critical campaigners will only be convinced that Phillipson is taking this issue seriously if she publishes the guidance for schools on gender-questioning children which was commissioned under the last Conservative government, as the majority of schools still allow children to socially transition and be recognised as the opposite sex.

The Telegraph cartoonist Matt was as usual on sharp form, depicting Westminster as the papal conclave with white smoke showing that the Starmer “has decided what a woman is”.

It may be satire but for many women who have been persecuted by trans activists and lost their livelihoods because of the Government-sanctioned gender ideology, it adds insult to injury that the Prime Minister thinks he can just skip over the last few years and pretend that because he now agrees women can’t have penises that everything is fine.

Everything is certainly not fine. The education system (from nurseries to universities), the NHS, Government departments and most publicly-funded organisations are completely entrenched in the gender cult and it will take a full-scale public investigation to find out how and why this has been allowed to happen.

Now is not the time to “lower the temperature” as Starmer asserted to the leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch during PMQs this week, to the wrath of some social media commentators who christened him “Mr Flip-Flop”.

It was gratifying to see Badenoch challenge Starmer during PMQs on his “lack of moral courage” for “cheering an ideology that denied safe spaces for women and girls because he thought it was cool to do so” and for “hounding” the former Labour MP Rosie Duffield “out of his party for telling the truth”.

However, the Conservatives are just as guilty for allowing gender ideology to become entrenched in education and public services – after all, it was Boris Johnson who was Prime Minster when the DfE introduced compulsory LGBT relationship and sex education (RHSE) into schools in 2019, thus opening classroom doors to trans activist organisations looking to indoctrinate children.

It was also the Conservatives, under the leadership of David Cameron, who in 2010 placed Arts Council England (ACE) in charge of the budget of libraries in England.

As revealed in the new report from the Family Education Trust (FET), ‘Losing Our Libraries‘, the fact that ACE has been left to control funding without proper oversight has led to public funds being funnelled to further social causes and promote gender ideology to children.

FET’s research paper, conducted by members of the Women’s Right Network, found that 80% of grants for libraries by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) controlled by ACE goes to private companies, the vast majority of which (including eight of the 10 awarded more than £300,000 a year) are charities.

The report argues that lack of scrutiny on how taxpayer’s money is used has led to library mission-creep beyond their core purpose and has made them vulnerable to social trends, including the influx of the gender movement.

Gender ideology and wider ‘social justice’ ideology has become demonstrably prevalent in the librarians’ professional body, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). Guidance from this body on ‘Managing safe and inclusive public library services’ explicitly calls into question library neutrality, a violation of its ethical commitments to impartiality and the avoidance of ‘inappropriate bias’.

Indeed, the shortlist for the Carnegies, the UK’s longest running book awards for children, which are managed by CILIP and judged solely by librarians, includes a graphic novel exploring gender identity nominated for the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Illustration. Homebody by Theo Parish is described as a cross between a comic and a journal and said to be:

A refreshing authentic visual autobiography told through an intimate graphic novel. Theo the lead character takes us on a rites-of-passage journey about self-acceptance and coming to feel confident in one’s own body. Issues around gender, identity and sexuality are explored in a clear, confident and accessible way through the visual narrative and build empathy and compassion.

The age rating is aged 14-plus and has the content warning that it contains “some homophobia, gender dysphoria, transphobia and dead-naming”.

The press announcement for nominations states:

Theo Parish, one of two debut author-illustrators competing for the Medal for Illustration, has been shortlisted for Homebody, a “memorable” and “original” graphic novel about trans identity and the importance of living authentically. Judges hailed this “important book” as an “original” take on a “complex” subject, “illustrated beautifully” using the colour palette of the trans flag.

Such ideological infiltration, especially as regards LGBT concerns, can also be seen throughout the system of institutions governing libraries, including the Arts Council and even the current Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

This lack of neutrality undermines the high level of trust which the public puts in libraries to concentrate on promoting literacy according to objective measurements and standard principles of good governance and ideological neutrality.

‘Losing our Libraries’ exposes how the Reading Agency, an organisation that has developed a highly trusted brand within the library sector with its flagship initiative, the Reading Well scheme, promotes gender ideology and signposts children to LGBT activist organisations through its teenage book list.

Getting a book onto the Reading Well scheme is extremely lucrative for publishers, since every library in England and Wales has at least one copy of every title.

As of May 2024, there were 3,159 libraries in England and Wales. Freedom of Information Act requests reveal that the initial funding from DCMS was £3.5 million, of which £2.5 million was a one-off award to cover the cost of the Reading Well collections including eBooks and audio books. Between 2018 and 2024, Welsh libraries were awarded more than £1.8 million by the Welsh Government to purchase these titles, some of which were also made available in Welsh language translations.

It is to be expected that key individuals in the publishing industry will have connections to organisations like BookTrust and the Reading Agency. However, a small number of individuals hold a surprisingly large number of influential positions across these organisations.

Between them, David Shelley and Paul Kelly hold directorships at 23 publishing houses and both are Trustee Directors of the Reading Agency. David Shelley is a Director at Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, and CEO at Hachette. Hachette owns or trades under the name of Franklin Watts, Jessica Kingsley Publishers and Wayland. Meanwhile, the portfolio of publishing houses under David Shelley’s influence owns a high proportion of the titles on the Reading Well book lists. Whilst there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, of the 33 books in the current Reading Well for Children list, 16 are from Hachette or Hodder, including eight titles from Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Overall, more than half of the Reading Well titles are published by companies where David Shelley is CEO or a Director, with the Reading Well for mental health list having 25 of 37 titles owned by Shelley’s companies.

Given the extent to which gender identity ideology is embedded in publishing generally and Hachette in particular, in local councils, CILIP and Arts Council England, it is unsurprising to find books promoting this highly contested, counterfactual ideology being enthusiastically offered to children by public libraries.

Three of the books that are included in the Reading Well for Teens list in the category Sexuality, Gender Identity and Mental Health are highly questionable as to the objectivity, veracity and coherence of their contents. The titles are: Welcome to St. Hell: my trans teen misadventure by Lewis Hancox; Coming Out Stories edited by Emma Goswell and Sam Walker; Queer Up by Alexis Caught.

All three of these titles promote gender identity ideology as fact, while Coming Out Stories signposts readers to transgender activist organisations including Mermaids and LGBT Youth Scotland. Both of these organisations have promoted puberty blockers for children. LGBT Youth Scotland has been subject to claims of child grooming and sexual exploitation, with its former CEO James Rennie being convicted in 2009 of child sexual assault.

Meanwhile, Mermaids provided breast binders to children and appointed paedophile apologist Jacob Breslow as a trustee. Mermaids was recently investigated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales which found it guilty of multiple child safeguarding failures.

An organisation like the Reading Agency that is encouraging children to read books promoting the idea that they can change sex, and directing them to activist groups keen to offer them misleading, harmful advice, must be challenged about these activities. Instead, Arts Council England continues to fund them with taxpayer’s money, no questions asked.

Perhaps the Prime Minister expects us all to applaud his newfound confidence in knowing what a woman is. While the courtroom battle over the legal definition of a woman may be won in legal terms, the war against gender ideology will only be over once we have eradicated the influence this dangerous movement has on society as a whole.

Lucy Marsh is the Communications and PR Officer of the Family Education Trust.