Sir Keir Starmer signalled a climbdown on Labour’s transgender stance on Thursday as he said lessons have to be learned from Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon unexpectedly resigned as First Minister last month after her radical approach to trans rights cost her the support of her SNP colleagues.

A law drawn up by Ms Sturgeon but blocked by Westminster would have allowed anyone over the age of 16 to self-identify their gender without a medical certificate.

Sir Keir previously vowed to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to allow trans people to self-identify.

However, the Labour leader appeared to back away from the pledge when asked if he still planned to press ahead with the changes during a press conference in Stoke-on-Trent.

Sir Keir told reporters: “I mean I think that if we reflect on what’s happened in Scotland, the lesson I take from that is that if you’re going to make reforms, you have to carry the public with you.

“And I think that’s a very important message, and I think that’s why it’s clear that in Scotland there should be a reset of the situation.”

In a message to the LGBT website Pink News for Pride in 2021, Sir Keir had said his priority was “forming the next Government so we can introduce legislation and change society so that, whoever you are, you can live a happy and fulfilled life”.

He added: “We are committed to updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people.”

Sir Keir initially remained silent on Nicola Sturgeon’s proposals, but in January revealed he thought 16-year-olds were too young to legally change their gender.

While vowing to remove “indignities” from the current system, he acknowledged that for “99.9 per cent of women the issue is biological”.

Labour has previously appeared to come unstuck on transgender issues, with a number of leading figures in the party giving different answers about what a woman is.

In May 2022, Sir Keir refused to say whether a woman could have a penis, only to eventually go on to admit that “biology matters”.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, broke ranks last spring when he declared “men have penises, women have vaginas”, only for Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, to insist some women “will have penises”.

Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, has suggested that children as young as 13 should be “taken seriously” if they want to change gender.

Sir Keir’s party has also been criticised by Rosie Duffield, one of its MPs, over the lack of support she says she has been given after expressing her gender-critical views.

Ms Duffield likened being in Labour to her abusive relationship after she was “shouted down” by her fellow backbenchers during a debate on Ms Sturgeon’s laws.

“Keir [Starmer] may dismiss this as a culture war issue, but for these women, it is most definitely not,” the Canterbury MP wrote earlier this year.

“And I know I’m not the only MP in the party who thinks this – I’m just the only one who feels I have nothing to lose by speaking out.”