UK general election live: Rishi Sunak ‘not aware’ of other Tory candidates being looked at for election bets

Labour will introduce a cooling off period
for people who want to legally change their gender if it wins the election, the BBC has learned.

But the party will scrap the need for transgender people to provide what it considers to be unnecessary
documentary evidence as it tries to “simplify” the
“intrusive and outdated gender recognition law”.

Labour has promised to remove what it
describes as the “indignities” experienced by the small number of
people who apply to legally change their gender.

Sources have confirmed that
changes will be put in place as signalled last year if it forms the next
government.

Under the plans, a person would still need a medical diagnosis of
gender dysphoria but it would come from a single specialist doctor, rather than
the panel that is currently required.

The diagnosis is all they would need to
apply for a gender recognition certificate – but they would have to wait until
a two year “reflection period” had passed to receive it.

They would
no longer have to provide documentary proof that they had lived in their “acquired” gender during that time nor would they need the approval of their
spouse.

At the weekend, the author, campaigner and one-time Labour donor, JK
Rowling, said she would now struggle to vote for the party because she claimed
it had “abandoned women” over its policies on gender. Labour insists
it will continue to support exemptions for single sex spaces.