Labour conference attendees must declare sex listed on their passport: ‘Yet more cruelty’

Labour leader and prime minister Sir Keir Starmer. [Getty]

Labour’s upcoming 2025 conference will reportedly require attendees to have passports that match their declared sex.

An application form for the Labour Party’s Annual Conference features a disclaimer under its section for the applicant’s sex, which states that their selection must match the gender on their passport.

“Sex must match your passport gender for the necessary security checks,” the disclaimer reads. “This does not discriminate against how individuals may choose to identify.”

The checks could pose risks to trans and non-binary attendees whose passports don’t match their birth sex.

The Labour Party conference requires that attendees’ declared gender matches that on their passport. [Getty]

PinkNews can confirm that none of the other major Party conferences, including the Tories, Greens, and Lib Dems, require passport gender checks to enter their respective events.

An FAQs section on the Labour Party’s website states that all attendees also require an “up to date passport style photograph” to enter the venue. Further information on security checks will be made “later in the summer.”

Labour conference passport checks ‘deeply sad’, Labour group says

Labour for Trans Rights, a pressure group within the Labour Party, said it is “deeply sad” that Labour refuses to “recognise trans identities as valid.”

“The situation could be rectified by the Labour government changing the law to clarify that trans women are women and trans men are men, but until this happens trans people will continue to be discriminated against,” a spokesperson told PinkNews.

TransActual co-director, jane fae, told PinkNews that it was “hard to understand” what security requirement is fulfilled by the demand.

“I have worked with government at the highest level in the last few years, looking at how best to implement secure ID checks for a range of purposes – and the conclusion, by experts working for government, was that ‘sex’ was not especially helpful, and, if anything, was unnecessary for identification purposes.

She further blasted Labour for “yet more cruelty” against the trans community, adding that the party has “now distinguished itself for its cruelty towards trans people.”

“Why are Labour doing it? Kneejerk reaction? Because someone somewhere thinks they know better than the experts,” she said.

PinkNews has contacted the Labour Party for comment.

The conference, which takes place in Liverpool, is set to commence between 28 September and 1 October. It will be the first following the Supreme Court ruling.

Last year, Starmer was criticised for failing to mention any LGBTQ+ issues during the 2024 Labour Party conference, despite growing pressure to acknowledge the Party’s shortcomings.

During the speech, he vowed to make the UK a place that gives an “equal voice to every person” and a place “that won’t expect you to change who you are just to get on.”

Criticism of the Labour conference entry requirements comes after Labour leader and prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, declared he no longer believes trans women are women, nor that trans men are men.

Following a Supreme Court ruling issued in April, which argued the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of sex refers to “biological sex,” Starmer said he was “really pleased” with the ruling.

Asked by BBC News whether the 62-year-old still believed trans women are women, a spokesperson for Number 10 said: “No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman.”

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https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/16/labour-conference-passport-gender-checks/