The silence surrounding Labour’s inaction on protecting women is deafening but not at all surprising. It is approaching one year since the highest court in the land ruled that sex is binary. That is, legally, it should be interpreted as referring to either a biological man or a biological woman.

The landmark judgement issued by five Supreme Court judges on April 16 attempted to provide precision and plainness to an issue that should not be at all complicated, or controversial, but has left women fearful at work and the vast majority of the country shaking its head in disbelief.

In delivering its ruling, the finest legal minds said that for the Equality Act to be consistent, a woman, in law, means a biological woman. This does not include biological men, even if they have changed gender, meaning that changing rooms, toilets, single-sex hospital wards, or anywhere designated women-only, are off limits for men who want to identify as women.

The biology is simple, the concept has been easily grasped by nursery age children for decades, and the UK’s highest appellate court has issued its unequivocal verdict. Yet instead of clarity this Labour government continues with chaos and confusion and is happy for vagueness, ambiguity, ambivalence, and obscurity to engulf public and private sector workplaces.

It is wrong. It is maddening. And you might ask yourself why – and you would be right to do so.

Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson has refused to publish updated guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court judgement, despite having it since September 4.

The dither, delay, and vacillation is unconscionable for three reasons. Firstly, it sticks two fingers up to the law.

Second, it has created a climate of fear among women fighting what Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has described as dangerous “radical trans ideology” especially in the woke public sector. And third the very same women abandoned by those whose job is to protect them have been left to fundraise to fight cases where their employer has flagrantly refused to adhere to, or uphold, the law.

It is lunacy of the highest order. Last April’s ruling was hailed as a victory for common sense. But in the period since there have been three disturbing cases all (surprise, surprise) featuring the NHS – which categorically proves it was anything but.

In Darlington, seven nurses were forced to take County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust to court for legal confirmation of the right to get undressed in a female-only changing room without a man pretending to be a woman loitering menacingly. They took action after the trust told them – including one who had experienced child sexual abuse and continues to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder – to “broaden their mindset and get educated”.

In Scotland, nurse Sandie Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife after objecting to sharing a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton. And in Surrey, nurse Jennifer Melle was disciplined and suspended by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust after a 6ft bearded male trans-identifying sex offender objected to being called – correctly in law and as per his medical records – “Mr”.

The extraordinary cases which, geographically, cover the entirety of Britain have sparked anger that Labour – a party beholden to vicious and vocal lobby groups and activist backbenchers – is deliberately doing nothing to address the fears of millions of normal women and by definition girls too frightened because men are still freely allowed into female changing rooms.

One source close to the issue told the Express: “They simply don’t know what they are doing or what they are saying. The Government is simply stringing us all along and messing people about. It’s deceitful and it’s dangerous.”

Perhaps the real reason for this apparent indifference to women’s safety is because Ms Phillipson and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have loftier ambitions. Both see themselves as successors to Sir Keir Starmer and are loath to do anything that could scupper their (albeit) slim chances of becoming prime minister.

This theory is borne out from an impeccable source who was at a recent Westminster meeting at which the employment tribunal victory of the Darlington Seven was discussed.

They said: “It is well known that the reason the EHRC issue has been kicked into the long grass, or deliberately ignored, is because if it was addressed it would seriously harm their leadership bids. And that says everything you need to know about this government. Personal ambition ahead of public safety. It’s disgraceful.”

As if to illustrate this point UNISON – one of the UK’s largest trade unions with 1.3 million members and representing staff who provide public services in the public and private sector – washed its hands of the Darlington nurses.

Last month a tribunal found the seven women had suffered unlawful harassment and had their dignity violated by a biological man who was allowed to strip to his underpants as they got undressed in a female changing room at work. After the verdict the union, which has a membership that is 75% female, screamed that it “stands by its beliefs in the rights of our trans, non-binary, and gender diverse members”.

As one observer put it: “A trade union’s first duty is to protect its members’ legal rights at work. Female members might reasonably ask: who is UNISON actually standing up for?”

So, despite a landmark legal judgement and a trio of high profile cases at which female nurses have been exonerated this government is frightened to death and remains held to ransom.

This unforgivable inertia means women will continue having to fund costly action in an effort to get the law applied because the Government won’t do it. What the three cases have shown is what happens when we legislate to protect something that is not true. A man cannot become a woman like a woman cannot become a man. It is a biological and legal truth, even if we legislate to say otherwise.

This madness – peddled by the public sector and its unions and perpetuated by Labour – has created a legal fiction, chaos, and injustice where good and honest people are punished. But, as Ms Phillipson, Mr Streeting, and any number of Labour MPs are finding out, reality cannot be overturned. The law says so.

Ms Phillipson has sparked anger by suggesting that boys should be allowed to wear dresses to school. The Education Secretary said pupils should be allowed to “experiment” with their gender identity and teachers should not be “coming down too hard” on them.

Is it any wonder there is now much confusion, nay anger, that Labour sees gender identity as such critical issue that Ms Phillipson’s very own department has watered down trans guidance proposed by the Tories that would have banned primary schools from changing pupils’ pronouns?

Baroness Sharron Davies of Devonport, the former Olympian and women’s rights campaigner, said: “It’s time this weak government held these bodies accountable rather than individuals being left to apply the law.

“And if Bridget Phillipson really meant what she said ‘that the law is crystal clear and organisations need not wait for the EHRC guidance’ then she needs to act and stop sitting on her hands.”

A government spokesperson told the Express: “The EHRC has submitted a draft Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations to Ministers, and we are reviewing it with the care it deserves. We have always been clear that this code will not apply on employment which is why we have said that employers should be following the law and updating their guidance in line with the ruling.”