A five judge panel of the UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in UK law refer to a ‘biological woman’ and ‘biological sex’.

This means transgender persons who are born male but identify as female will no longer be regarded as women for the purposes of law.

In an 88-page ruling, the Court said that the concept of sex is binary and “a person is either a woman or a man”.

“Although the word ‘biological’ does not appear in this definition, the ordinary meaning of those plain and unambiguous words corresponds with the biological characteristics that make an individual a man or a woman.”

Any other interpretation would make equality law “incoherent and impracticable”.

The ruling was welcomed as a “victory for common sense”, by campaigners, while prominent scientist, Richard Dawkins, applauded the decision saying the law had finally “caught up” with science.