2 March 2020updated 03 Mar 2020 9:35am

It’s not the Labour leadership candidates who won’t stop talking about trans issues

The main reason we have heard “so much” about the subject is that it is a rare policy area that reliably produces mainstream media coverage.

By Stephen Bush

DURHAM, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 23: Lisa Nandy, MP for Wigan looks on as Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Secretary of State for Business addresses the audience during the Labour Party Leadership hustings at the Radisson Blu Hotel on February 23, 2020 in Durham, England. Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy are vying to replace Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who offered to step down following his party's loss in the December 2019 general election. The final ballot will open to party members and registered and affiliated supporters on February 24. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

Why do the Labour leadership candidates keep talking about trans rights? That’s the question being asked by a number of commentators – the academic Eric Kaufmann is the latest to write on the issue, while Matt Singh of NumberCruncherPolitics has repeatedly warned that Labour is harming itself by focussing unduly on the issue.

There is just one problem: the Labour leadership candidates don’t keep talking about trans rights. It is, at the very minimum, the eighth pledge in the Labour leadership contest and one of the least significant as far as differentiating between the candidates, not least because two out of the three remaining candidates (Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey) have signed it, and the third (Keir Starmer) has indicated that he broadly agrees with the pledge. Just as importantly, there is, at the present time, no clear daylight between Labour and the Conservatives on the issue either.