Keir Starmer has said he is proud of Labour’s history on women’s rights after JK Rowling said she would struggle to support the party because of its stance on transgender rights. Starmer told reporters on Saturday that he was “very proud of the progress” of past Labour governments, which made a “material difference” to women’s lives. Writing in the Times on Saturday, Rowling, a former Labour member and donor, said she would struggle to vote for the party “as long as Labour remains dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain the rights”. She said she had a “poor opinion” of Starmer’s character and claimed he was “dismissive and often offensive” of women’s concerns about sex-based rights. She wrote that she was considering supporting an independent candidate standing in her constituency who is “campaigning to clarify the Equality Act”. Asked for his response to Rowling’s comments, the Labour leader said: “I do respect her, but I would point out the long record that Labour has in government of passing really important legislation which has advanced the rights of women and made a material difference.” He added: “That fight is never over. Those challenges are never over. We need to make further progress when it comes to women’s rights. That’s why what’s set out in a manifesto is so important.” On trans rights, he said a Labour government would seek a “reset moment where we can bring the country together and ensure that all debate is done in a respectful way”. Starmer said during a BBC Question Time debate on Thursday that he agreed with Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, who said recently that “biologically, a woman is with a vagina and a man is with a penis”. The Labour leader had previously criticised Rosie Duffield, a Labour candidate, for saying that only women have a cervix. In 2021, he said her comments were “something that shouldn’t be said. It is not right.” On Saturday, when asked whether he would now apologise to Duffield, Starmer said: “I think it’s very important, in all political space, that we treat all views with respect and all people with dignity and that’s what I tried to do throughout this. I’m very proud of the progress that we’ve made as a Labour party in government in the past when it comes to women’s rights. I’m conscious that the battle for women’s rights is never over. We need to make further progress in this country.” Last week, Duffield said she had decided not to attend hustings in Canterbury, where she is seeking re-election, due to “constant trolling, spite and misinterpretation”. She said the abuse had affected her “sense of security and wellbeing” and that she had had to “spend time and money on personal security”. Rowling accused Starmer of failing to support Duffield, writing in the Times: “It seems Rosie has received literally no support from Starmer over the threats and abuse, some of which has originated from within the Labour party itself, and has had a severe, measurable impact on her life. “The impression given by Starmer at Thursday’s debate was that there had been something unkind, something toxic, something hardline, in Rosie’s words, even though almost identical words had sounded perfectly reasonable when spoken by Tony Blair.” She continued: “For left-leaning women like us, this isn’t, and never has been, about trans people enjoying the rights of every other citizen, and being free to present and identify however they wish. “This is about the right of women and girls to assert their boundaries. It’s about freedom of speech and observable truth.”