Dianne Hayter vs. transgender people

Baroness Dianne Hayter is a British politician, consumer activist, author, and anti-transgender activist. Hayter has collaborated with and supported anti-trans groups Labour Women’s Declaration and Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG). Hayter and Maeve Halligan were announced as opening speakers at a 2026 London conference organized by CAN-SG and anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) titled “Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine.”

Background

Dianne Hayter was born on September 7, 1949 to Alec Bristow Hayter (1910–1972) and Nancy Evans (1914–1959).

Hayter earned a bachelor’s degree from at Trevelyan College, Durham University in 1969. Trevelyan was sex-segregated at the time, and Hayter told the alumni magazine in 2009: “It was very important to me that Trevs was an all-women’s college (the college became fully mixed in 1992). It meant I wasn’t just a theoretical feminist, but that we got on and organised everything ourselves.” Hayter later earned a doctorate from London University in 2004.

Hayter has held many leadership roles:

General Secretary political think tank The Fabian Society: 1976–1982
Journalist for A Week in Politics on Channel Four: 1982–1984
A director of Alcohol Concern (now Alcohol Change UK): 1984–1990
Chief executive of the European Parliamentary Labour Party: 1990–1996
A director of Casa Social Care: 1993–2012
Director of corporate affairs for the Wellcome Trust: 1996–1999
Secretary of Genome Research Limited: 1997–1999
Secretary of Hinxton Hall Limited: 1998–1999
Member of Labour’s National Executive Committee: 1998–2010; Chair 2007–2008
Chief executive of the Pelican Cancer Centre (now Pelican Cancer Foundation): 1999 –2001
A director of Ruskin College: 2000–2001
A director of Dr Foster Intelligence: 2000–2010
Chair of the Consumer Panel for the Bar Standards Board
National Consumer Council: 2001–2008
– Member of the Financial Reporting Council’s Board of Actuarial Standards, of the Determinations Panel of the Pensions Regulator, of the Board of the Surveying Ombudsman Service, and of the Insolvency Practices Council. Formerly: Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Authority Consumer Panel; Board member of the National Patient Safety Agency.
Board for Actuarial Standards, the
Insolvency Practices Council, the
Surveyors Ombudsman Service Board, the
Determinations Panel of the Pension Regulator
A director of The Property Institute: 2024–

In June 2010, Hayter was named a UK Life Peer and was created Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town, of Kentish Town in the London Borough of Camden. Hayter then held several roles while affiliated with Labour:

Opposition Whip: 2011–2015
Shadow Spokesperson: 2012–2021 (discontinuously)
Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords: 2017
Shadow Brexit Spokesperson: fired 2019

Hayter has been a member of several organizations, including Humanists UK and Labour Friends of Israel.

Hayter married physicist Anthony David Caplin in 1994. They live in Islington, London.

Anti-transgender activism

In 2022, Hayter expressed support for anti-trans group Labour Women’s Declaration after the Labour Party refused the group’s request for a stand at their event. Hayter signed a letter protesting the decision with Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi, Feryal Clark, Marsha de Cordova, Rosie Duffield, Julie Elliott, Mary Glindon, Diana Johnson, and Steve McCabe as well as Labour Peers Philip Hunt, Estelle Morris, David Triesman, and Tony Young.

In June 2023, Hayter and other “gender critical” activists resigned from Humanists UK over their trans-supportive positions.

In March 2024, Hayter gave the opening speech at the anti-trans “First Do No Harm” event organized by Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender, held at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). RCGP tried to cancel the event, but Hayter sent a letter threatening action under the Equality Act 2010. In the speech, Hayter called the protesters “cowards,” a “tiny but vociferous minority” engaged in “bullying.”

Hayter has spoken in Parliament in support of sex-segregated traditions, including continued use of sex-based language. Hayter has also expressed concern about including trans athletes in sex-segregated sports and about proposed bans on anti-trans conversion therapy.

References

Warden, David (June 30, 2023). Humanists UK resignations: we need a lot more dialogue about trans matters. Humanistically Speaking https://www.humanisticallyspeaking.org/post/humanists-uk-resignations-we-need-a-lot-more-dialogue-about-trans-matters

Hansford, Amelia (August 2, 2022). Labour MPs including former shadow equalities minister back ‘gender-critical’ group. PinkNews https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/08/02/labour-womens-declaration-gender-critical/

Alvarez, Astrid (Autumn 2009). Voice for the People. Durham First, Issue 27 https://www.dur.ac.uk/durham.first/autumn09/voiceforthepeople/ [archive]

Anti-trans coverage

Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender and Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (2026). Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine Conference: First Do No Harm. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/clinicaladvisorynetworkforsexgender/2162461

Gill, Charlotte (February 16, 2024). Royal College of GPs forced into U-turn after cancelling gender-critical doctors’ conference. Daily Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/16/lgbtq-rcgp-conference-on-sex-and-gender-cancelled/

Ross, Madeleine (June 12, 2023). ‘They’ve lost the plot’: Gender critical feminists quit Humanists UK in deepening row over amending the definition of sex in the Equality Act amid claims their views are not being respected. Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-12186387/Gender-critical-feminists-quit-Humanists-UK-deepening-row-amending-definition-sex.html

Savage, Michael (July 3, 2022). Labour accused of ‘silencing’ women in row over sex-based rights group. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/03/labour-accused-of-silencing-women-in-row-over-sex-based-rights-group

Selected writing by Hayter

Hayter, Dianne (January 24, 2024). Patients must know whether or not their medic is a biological woman. PoliticsHome https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/patients-know-medic-biological-woman

(July, 31, 2022). Labour must reconsider ban. The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2022/jul/31/observer-letters

Media

Fabian Society with Karin Christiansen, Margaret Curran, and Dianne Hayter (March 9, 2026). In Conversation: with Baroness Margaret Curran & Baroness Dianne Hayter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9fCkcZeNpQ

Labour Women’s Declaration (May 19, 2025). Labour peer Baroness Hayter asks about sport and the Supreme Court ruling 19 05 25 15 09 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JJJXrIHfk4

Labour Women’s Declaration (May 12, 2025). Baroness Hayter on the importance of reliable sex data, during Data Bill Amendments debate 12.05.25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkExx1r2Y2Q

Labour Women’s Declaration (April 24, 2025). Question from Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town following Statement on Supreme Court ruling 24.04.25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MalsNaQhHw0

Sex Matter (October 30, 2024). Fairness and safety in sport | House of Lords debate raised by Hayter. https://wwssw.youtube.com/watch?v=-zrCx9mDrOY

Labour Women’s Declaration (May 16, 2024). Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour) and answer from Bns Barron 16 05 24 14 58 58. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkuBSjDy0dc

Labour Women’s Declaration (May 3, 2024). Baroness Dianne Hayter (Labour) re NHS England & NHS London on sex-based language. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ovxJX6i-4

Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender with Dianne Hayter and Louise Irvine (March 23, 2024). Conference welcome Baroness Dianne Hayter & Dr Louise Irvine (CAN-SG co-chair). https://vimeo.com/932668846

Sex Matters (February 19, 2024). Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – House of Lords conversion therapy debate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrEMMhLGkrY

Labour Women’s Declaration (October 17, 2023). Baroness Hayter, LWD Fringe “How can Labour champion freedom for women and girls?” 9 Oct 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQRYxm2QUik

Books

Haworth, Alan; Hayter, Dianne [editors] (2006). Men Who Made Labour. Routledge, ISBN 978-1845680473

Hayter, Dianne (2006), Fightback!: Labour’s Traditional Right in the 1970s and 1980s. Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0719072703

Hayter, Dianne (1977). The Labour Party: Crisis and Prospects. Fabian Society, Tract No. 451. https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/Documents/Detail/the-labour-party-crisis-and-prospects-1977/113305