The Women’s Institute will no longer accept transgender women as members, it has confirmed.

Its decision to restrict admission only to those who are registered female at birth means it has become one of the first organisations to fully accept and implement an historic Supreme Court ruling.

Melissa Green, chief executive of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, said it had taken the decision with the “utmost regret and sadness”, adding it had “no choice” but to exclude trans women.

She said: “Incredibly sadly, we will have to restrict our membership on the basis of biological sex from April next year. But the message we really want to get across is that it remains our firm belief that transgender women are women, and that doesn’t change.”

The seismic shake-up is the first major

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