All proposals should be audited for their effect on women and girls.

Three hundred Labour Party activists and supporters, among them three MSPs and 24 Labour councillors, have launched a declaration on women’s sex-based rights — and are calling for more people to sign up.

The declaration, which has been issued in the form of a petition, is in response to moves which many fear threaten to erode and water down rights that women have campaigned long and hard to achieve.