The five questions on sex and gender that every candidate must answer

There are many big issues in this election, from the cost of living to the NHS. But voters are also concerned about single-sex services, and women’s rights when it comes to sex and gender.

In 2010 Gordon Brown was famously caught calling a voter a “bigoted woman” for expressing concerns about immigration.

Will today’s candidates call voters who say women don’t have penises “bigots” and “transphobes”, or will they listen to why single-sex services matter to women?

Polls show that only a minority of people want access granted to single-sex spaces on the basis of self-declared gender. That includes everyday spaces like toilets, changing rooms and hospital bays, and specialist services like women’s refuges and rape crisis centres.

Ordinary, sensible people don’t want those who identify as transgender to be discriminated against or harassed in work or everyday life. But they also want clear rules that protect genuinely women-only spaces and sports.

Many who have ventured into this debate have suffered trolling on social media and complaints to their employer. So many stay quiet. But people are concerned, especially when schools teach children the lie that they can choose whether to be a girl or a boy.

The election campaign will bring candidates to voters’ doorsteps asking for support. This gives us all an opportunity to ask clear questions in everyday language. Will the candidate protect children by stopping the scandal of puberty blockers and the promotion of gender ideology in schools? Will they stand up for single-sex services and sports, which are legally permissible but attacked by trans lobby groups?

If elected, will they abandon plans to criminalise ethical therapists and loving parents who try to support gender-distressed children without transitioning them? And finally, will they make sure no one is hounded out of their job for saying that there are two sexes, and sex can’t change?