GRARG met for the 3rd time remotely on 3rd September 2020. It was clear we remained in a limbo with no news on any Government announcement about reform to the GRA.
On 19th September the fog cleared a little with a leaked report in the Sunday Times that Self ID was NOT going to be part of any reform to the GRA, although the process of obtaining a certificate would be made less expensive.
What I thought was really significant was this comment:
More than 100,000 responses were received to the consultation. Insiders say 70% backed the idea that anyone should be allowed to self-identify. However, officials believe the results were skewed by responses generated by trans rights groups.
So we can see both the power of lobby groups but also their weakness – if you overplay your hand with weak cards, you may not achieve much.
Apparently Liz Truss will make a formal announcement on Wednesday September 23rd at 11.30 am. I really hope it will be to confirm the news already leaked.
With Self ID off the table – at least for now – the major and most serious threat to women’s rights is gone. But the conflation between sex and gender remains, and all the harm that this does. However, we can now focus on that issue as plank to reform to the GRA/EA without having to beat off the Self ID dragon – so that is very positive.
We will wait to see what announcement is made and arrange a fourth meeting to consider the implications of this.
Summary of the third meeting.
We discussed the spreadsheet of MP’s replies and considered tactics for moving forward. We agreed that those MP’s who self identified as ‘unsure’ were probably the best targets for further lobbying. Some of those who were ‘foes’ expressed truly incredible ideas; one male MP categorised those who supported women’s rights for single sex spaces as the same as those who propped up apartheid in South Africa. It’s clear we are unlikely to reach those!
A debate arose during and after the meeting about whether we should be publicising MP’s views at all, given the ‘consequences’ for expressing oneself as a ‘friend’. My view was that we should certainly make it clear who was friend/foe/unsure; MPs are public servants and the public have a right to know their position on a matter of such importance. Not only that, but GRARG was founded on the very important principle that these discussions must be held as publicly as possible; as an important weapon against the narrative that our views are in any way shameful or reprehensible. So we will continue to publish that information but as always, welcome feedback.
We agreed we should make further contact with other groups who are also collecting this information so that we get the best data possible to inform any further push to target the ‘unsures’, along with the need to consider other kinds of information dissemination, such as videos.
Updated spreadsheet.
On September 3rd we had 140 replies and 57% were in the ‘foe’ column. The Good News is, as of September 20 we had 164 replies and ‘foes were down to 48% at 79 MPS – ‘friend’ and ‘unsure’ roughly split at 44 and 41 each.
The first tranche are those who replied directly to the GRARG letter and the questions posed there.
| FRIEND | Thangam Debbonaire | Bristol West | LAB |
| FRIEND | Andrew Gwyenne | Denton and Reddish | LAB |
| FRIEND | John Howell OBE | Henley | CON |
| FRIEND | James Daly | Bury Ramsbottom and Tottingham | CON |
| FRIEND | Jonathan Lord | Woking | CON |
| FRIEND | Anthony Browne | South Cambridgeshire | CON |
| FRIEND | Chris Loder | West Dorset | CON |
| FRIEND | Steve Double | St Austell and Newquay | CON |
| FRIEND might be wobbly | Lucy Frazer | South East Cambridgeshire | CON |
| UNSURE | Suzanne Webb | Stourbridge | CON |
| UNSURE | Lucy Allan | Telford | CON |
| UNSURE | David Jones | Clwyd West | CON |
| FOE | Barry Gardiner | Brent North | LAB |
| FOE | Tahir Ali | Birmingham, Hall Green | LAB |
| FOE | Elliott Colburn | Carsharlton and Wallington | CON |
| REPLIES TO OTHER LETTERS including info from EMMA PALERMO. NB. Foes are recorded as ‘TWAW’ but this doesn’t necessarily mean they would answer this way if replying to the GRARG letter. | |||
| FRIENDS | |||
| FRIEND? | Diane Abbott | Hackney North | LAB |
| FRIEND | Elaine Smith | Central Scotland | LAB |
| FRIEND | Jenny Marra | N.E.Scotland | LAB |
| FRIEND | Johann Lamont | Glasgow | LAB |
| FRIEND | Gareth Bacon | Orpington | CON |
| FRIEND | Duncan Baker | North Norfolk | CON |
| FRIEND | Geoffrey Cox | Torridge & West Devon | CON |
| FRIEND | David Davies | Monmouth | CON |
| FRIEND | Jackie Doyle Price | Thurrock | CON |
| FRIEND | Iain Duncan Smith | Chingford and Woodford Green | CON |
| FRIEND | Laura Farris | Newbury | CON |
| FRIEND | Sally-Ann Hart | Hastings and Rye | CON |
| FRIEND | Danny Kreuger | Devizes | CON |
| FRIEND | Caroline Noakes | Romsey Southampton N | CON |
| FRIEND | Mark Pritchard | the Wrekin | CON |
| FRIEND | Elizabeth Truss | SW Norfolk | CON |
| FRIEND | Therese Coffey | Suffolk Coastal | CON |
| FRIEND | Phillip Davies | Shipley | CON |
| FRIEND | Ben Bradley | Mansfield | CON |
| FRIEND | James Heappey | Wells | CON |
| FRIEND | Bob Neill | Bromley and Chislehurst | CON |
| FRIEND | Jeremy Balfour | Lothian | CON |
| FRIEND | Patricia Gibson | N. Ayreshire | SNP |
| FRIEND | Joanna Cherry | Ed South West | SNP |
| FRIEND | Joan McAlpine | South Scotland | SNP |
| FRIEND | Angus McNeil | Na a-eileanan An Lar | SNP |
| FRIEND | Carol Monaghan | Glasgow NW | SNP |
| FRIEND | James Dornan | Glasgow Cathcart | SNP |
| FRIEND | Ash Denham | Edinburgh Eastern | SNP |
| FRIEND | Christine Grahame | Midlothian South, Tweeddale & Lauderdale | SNP |
| FRIEND | Ruth Maguire | Cunninghame South | SNP |
| FRIEND | Ivan McKee | Glasgow Provan | SNP |
| FRIEND | Andy Wightman | Lothian | GREEN |
| FRIEND | Helen Mary Jones | Mid and West Wales | PLAID |
| FOE/TWAW | Dark red = worth lobbying | ||
| FOE/TWAW | Cat Smith | Lancaster and Fleetwood | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Karin Smyth | Bristol South | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Alex Sobel | Leeds Northwest | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Keir Starmer | Holborn and St Pancras | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Wes Streeting | Ilford North | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Zarah Sultana | Coventy South | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Emily Thornberry | Islington S and Finsbury | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Karl Turner | Kingston upon Hull East | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Catherine West | Horney and Wood Grn | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Matt Western | Warwick and Leamington | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Nadia Whittome | Nottingham East | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Daneil Zeicher | Cambridge | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Angela Eagle | wallasey | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Tahir Ali | Birmingham | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Rosena Allina Khan | Tooting | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Fleur Anderson | Putney | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Clive Betts | Sheffield | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Dawn Butler | Brent Central | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Ian Byrne | Liverpool West Darby | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Dan Carden | Liverpool Walton | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Richard Burgon | Leeds East | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Bambos Charalambous | Enfield South | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Stella Creasey | Walthamstow | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Stephen Doughty | Cardiff S and Penarth | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Gill Furniss | Sheffield Brightside | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Mary Glindon | North Tyneside | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Jeremy Corbyn | Is North | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Kim Johnson | Liverpool Riverside | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Gillian Keegan | Chichester | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | David Lammy | Tottenham | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Clive Lewis | Norwich South | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Rebecca Long Bailey | Salford and Eccles | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Seema Malhotra | Feltham and Heston | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Kerry McCarthy | Bristol East | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Stephan Morgan | Portsmouth South | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Ian Murray | Edinburgh South | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Alex Norris | Nottingham North | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Luke Pollard | Plymouth Sutton Devonport | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Lucy Powell | Manchester Central | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Yasmin Qureshi | Bolton SE | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Angela Rayner | Ashton-Under-Lyme | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Bell Ribeiro-Addy | Streatham | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Marie Rimmer | St. Helens South and Whiston | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Lloyd Russell Moyle | Brighton Kemptown | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Jess Phillips | Birmingham Yardley | LAB |
| FOE/TWAW | Royston Smith | Southampton Itchen | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Nickie Aiken | Westminster | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Stuart Andrew | Pudsey | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Crispin Blunt | Reigate | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Connor Burns | Bournemeouth West | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Christopher Chope | Christchurch | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | John Hayes | South Holland & Deepings | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Drew Hendry | Inverness Nairn, Badenoch & Stratsby | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Mims Davies | Mid Sussex | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Nicola Richards | West Bromwich East | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Jamie Wallace | Bridgend | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Gary Sambrook | Birmingham Northfield | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Paul Holmes | Eastleigh | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | James Sunderland | Bracknell | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Richard Holden | NorthWest Durham | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | Ben Everitt | Milton Keynes North | CON |
| FOE/TWAW | John Nicolson | Ochil and South Perthshire | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Stewart McDonald | Gllasgow south | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | David Lyndon | Glasgow East | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Chris Law | Dundee West | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Martin Docherty | W Dumbartonshire | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Angela Crawley | Lannarck & Hamilton East | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Alan Brown | Kilmarnokck | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Mhairi Black | Paisley | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Kirsty Blackman | Aberdeen N | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Chris Stephens | Glasgow SW | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Pete Wishart | Perth and N. Perthshire | SNP |
| FOE/TWAW | Edward Davey | Kinston and surbiton | LIB DEMS |
| FOE/TWAW | Chrstine Jardine | Edinburgh West | LIB DEMS |
| FOE/TWAW | Layla Moran | West Oxford and Abingdon | LIB DEMS |
| FOE/TWAW | Caroline Lucas | Brighton Pavilion | GREEN |
| UNSURE | |||
| TWAW/CONFUSED | Alicia Kearns | Rutland and Melton | CON |
| UNSURE | Caroline Ansell | Eastbourne | CON |
| UNSURE | Richard Bacon | South Norfolk | CON |
| UNSURE? | Kemi Badenoch | Saffron Waldren | CON |
| UNSURE | Karen Bradley | Staffs Moorlands | CON |
| UNSURE | Ben Bradshaw | Exeter | CON |
| UNSURE | Suella Braverman | Fareham | CON |
| UNSURE | Maria Caulfield | Lewes Sussex | CON |
| UNSURE? | Daniel Kawczynski | Shewsbury & Atcham | CON |
| UNSURE | Jonathan Lord | Woking | CON |
| UNSURE | Owen Patterson | North Shropshire | CON |
| UNSURE | Dominic Raab | Esher and Walton | CON |
| UNSURE | Paul Scully | Sutton and Cheam | CON |
| UNSURE | Jeremy Wright | Kenilworth on Southam | CON |
| UNSURE | Andrew Percey | Brigg and Goole | CON |
| UNSURE | Virginia Corsbie | Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Môn) | |
| UNSURE | Ruth Cadbury | Brentford and Isleworth | LAB |
| UNSURE | Tonia Antoniazzi | Gower | LAB |
| UNSURE/FRIEND | Marsha D Cordova | Battersea | LAB |
| UNSURE/VEERING TO FOE | Rose Duffield | Canterbury | LAB |
| UNSURE | Julie Elliott | Sunderland Central | LAB |
| UNSURE | Harriet Harman | Camberwell and Peckham | LAB |
| UNSURE | Caroline Harris | Swansea East | LAB |
| UNSURE | Diana R Johnson | Kingston upon Hull North | LAB |
| UNSURE/FRIEND | Peter Kyle | Hove | LAB |
| UNSURE | Siobhain McDonagh | Mitcham and Morden | LAB |
| UNSURE | John Martin McDonnell | Hayes and Harlington | LAB |
| UNSURE | Pat McFadden | Wolverhampton SE | LAB |
| UNSURE | Ann McMorrin | Cardiff North | LAB |
| UNSURE | Bridge Phillipson | Houghton & Sunderland South | LAB |
| UNSURE | Jonathan Reynolds | Stalybridge and Hyde | LAB |
| UNSURE/FRIEND | Jo Stevens | Cardiff Central | LAB |
| UNSURE | Beth Winter | Cynom Valley | LAB |
| UNSURE? | Tim Farron | Westmoreland & Londsdale | LIB DEMS |
| UNSURE | Alyn Smith | Sterling | SNP |
| HOUSE OF LORDS | |||
| FRIENDS | |||
| FRIEND | Baroness Nicholson | LD | |
| FRIEND | Zac Goldsmith | CON | |
| FRIEND | Lewis Moonie | LAB | |
| FRIEND | Philip Hunt | @LordPhilofBrum | LAB |
| FRIEND | Tanni Grey Thomson, Baroness | INDEPENDENT |