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Equalities Minister Overrides Committees to Install Gender-Critical Advocate as EHRC Chair

Bridget Phillipson will confirm Mary-Ann Stephenson as EHRC chair despite committees’ refusals, risking deeper divisions over women’s sex-based rights, trans protections under the Equality Act.

Questions put by parliamentary committees to Mary-Ann Stephenson would be seen as discrimination in a regular job interview, a women’s rights charity says
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Overview

  • The Women and Equalities Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights both declined to endorse Mary-Ann Stephenson, citing doubts about her impartiality and leadership experience.
  • Sex Matters accused MPs of “openly hostile” and ill-informed questioning that could amount to unlawful belief discrimination during Stephenson’s vetting.
  • Stephenson has publicly defended gender-critical positions, including co-signing letters opposing silencing of ‘transphobic’ views and supporting Allison Bailey’s legal fund.
  • Trans rights groups such as Pride in Labour lobbied MPs to reject Stephenson’s nomination over fears her views would weaken protections for transgender people.
  • The minister for women and equalities maintains the committees’ advice is nonbinding, and her override underscores a wider battle over how the Equality Act defines biological sex and gender identity.