LABOUR’S Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has denied the party has a problem with women.

Asked about the heckling of Labour MP Rosie Duffield by her own side this week, Pat McFadden denied that the party had an issue.

He told GB News: “We don’t have a women problem. We’ve got fantastic strong women in the Labour Party.

“I work for one, Rachel Reeves the Shadow Chancellor – but to go to the second part of what you said, no, she shouldn’t have been heckled, of course, no.”

He added: “This is a really sensitive issue, this issue that people have been talking about, changing their gender and what the law should be and how that should be recognised, is sensitive.

“There are really strong views on it. What I would advocate here is let people give their views. Let’s not be cruel or mean to anyone in this debate.”

In an interview with Camilla Tominey, he was asked: “Is it transphobic to say that only women have a cervix?”

Mr Mc Fadden said: “I’m not going to use a term like transphobic.

“Of course, that’s the case. The reason this is in politics at the moment is we’ve got a gender recognition Act, which recognises that for some people during the course of their life, they will want to change their gender.”

Asked if allowing 16 year-olds to choose their gender was right, he said: “We’ve said we’re not comfortable with that.

“I think politics has to work this through and has to do it in a sensitive way. As I say, it has to be debated without being cruel or mean to anyone and in a way that people can express their views.”

Turning to Labour’s tax and spending plans, he said: “The principle will be if we come forward with new spending, we’ll show how we will pay for it…

“We’ve identified staffing shortages as being part of a big long term problem in the NHS. It’s no secret about that.

“So we’ve got a plan to train more doctors, train more district nurses in particular, which customer and we’ve said we’ll pay for that through the abolition of the non-dom tax loophole.

“We think it will raise £3 billion a year but let me just say the general principle here is that my job as Shadow Chief Secretary is to make sure that our colleagues don’t make unfunded spending commitments and things which were people are hinting or whatever. Our manifesto will be based on a programme where we say how it’s going to be funded.”