Survey shows 91% of trans people distrust Labour

A survey has revealed a crisis in trust among trans people of the Labour Party and the institutions it governs. 

A staggering 91% of the trans people surveyed said they distrusted Labour with trans rights either “not very much” or “not at all”, putting the party only five points ahead of the Tories at 96%. In comparison, YouGov’s tracker reported earlier this month that 62% of all Britons think Labour is “untrustworthy”, with 15% thinking the party is “trustworthy”. 

The YouGov poll, commissioned by Good Law Project, comes on the final day of voting for Labour’s deputy leader, which is now a race between Lucy Powell and the women and equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson.

Phillipson has come under fire from campaigners supporting trans rights after promoting an extreme version of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman. Speaking in parliament after the judgment, Phillipson said the government was “working to protect single-sex spaces based on biological sex”. 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) rushed out interim guidance following the ruling. Facing a legal challenge from Good Law Project – which will be heard in November – the commission withdrew its guidance last week. But organisations across the country have already followed this guidance to put policies in place that exclude trans people. The survey found 60% of those surveyed distrust the EHRC.

Lucy Powell has criticised the guidance, stating that as a feminist she sees “no contradiction” in fighting for gender equality, women’s safety and supporting trans people.

Other issues that may have contributed to a lack of trust in Labour include Wes Streeting’s permanent ban on puberty blockers, and the party abandoning a manifesto pledge to make the process of gender recognition easier. 

For Good Law Project’s executive director, Jo Maugham, these shifts cut deep. 

“Labour knows the jeopardy trans people endure,” Maugham said. “Before the election it promised to ‘remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance’. But in government it has lined up alongside the Tories and Reform UK at the cruelty Olympics.” 

The poll of 457 trans, non-binary and intersex adults living in Great Britain shows the devastating impact of institutional hostility on a community estimated to make up less than 1% of the UK population.

According to the results, just 25% of trans adults trust the police, and only 31% trust judges and the legal system. Police trust has almost halved among trans people since 2022, when a separate  YouGov survey of British adults found it was running at 41% among trans respondents. In 2024, the ONS found that UK adults more broadly gave the police an average rating of 5.7 out of 10 for trust. 

The NHS is the only institution which performs well in the survey. Despite 59% reporting difficulties accessing healthcare, 72% of trans people said they trusted the NHS. 

Earlier this month, QueerAF found that most trans people in the UK wait more than a third of their adult life to get their first appointment at an NHS gender clinic, and some never receive care.

• All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from an online survey conducted by YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 457 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 23 July and 11 August 2025. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all trans adults, including non-binary, intersex, other, aged 18+.