Labour accused of 'playing politics with children's lives' after suggesting it will scrap guidance banning young people being taught they can change gender

Labour was yesterday accused of 'playing politics with children's lives' after suggesting it will scrap guidance banning young pupils from being taught that they can change gender.

Bridget Phillipson, the party's education spokesman, refused to confirm that she would keep the schools guidance published this year by her Tory counterpart Gillian Keegan, which bans the teaching of gender ideology in any form.

It came as JK Rowling stepped up her attack on Labour over gender identity and women's rights.

The Harry Potter author posted an article from the Guardian newspaper in which Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer boasted about how he was proud of his party's record on women's rights.

But alongside it she posted: 'Labour giving the same energy as a man who's been s****ing a woman from work but thinks his wife should be cool about it because he always put the bins out.' 

Her intervention came after she accused the party of abandoning women concerned about gender ideology in a newspaper on Saturday.

Ms Phillipson told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that any guidance needed to acknowledge that trans people exist, adding that Ms Keegan's version contained 'partisan and unnecessary language'.

Asked whether a Labour government would keep the guidance, she repeatedly refused to do so. Pressed on whether she would 'ditch the ban on teaching the concept of gender identity', she replied: 'There are trans people within society and their existence should be recognised . . . Many trans people are vulnerable and are deserving of support.'

But last night the Education Secretary hit back, saying: 'The Shadow Education Secretary confirmed this morning that a Labour government would play politics with the lives of our children by ripping up guidance on gender questioning children, effectively allowing contested gender ideology to be taught in the classroom.'

In her excoriating article in The Times on Saturday, Ms Rowling slammed Sir Keir for a 'dismissive and often offensive' approach to women's rights.

The author, who donated £1 million to Labour under Gordon Brown, said she would struggle to vote for the party and lambasted its 'embrace of gender identity ideology'.

She suggested that she does not trust Sir Keir's judgment and had a 'poor opinion' of his character.