Ocado has apologised “unreservedly” to Mumsnet for citing “hateful political views” when it pulled out of a commercial partnership over the parenting forum’s stance on the definition of sex in the Equality Act.
Founder Justine Roberts said Ocado “abruptly pulled out” of the partnership after Mumsnet called at the last election for the act to be reformed “to ensure women can access single-sex places”.
Ms Roberts said she had “feared the site might not survive” because of the number of advertisers which withdrew support over the discussion of gender issues on its forums.
Her post came after the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a woman is defined by biological sex under the Equality Act.
Mumsnet’s call for reform would have allowed for spaces to be reserved for biological women.
Ms Roberts said the forum had also made “repeated attempts to explain our position – as a platform committed to amplifying women’s voices” but Ocado had “refused to speak to us”.
In a post on X, Ocado said the comments were “not representative of us as a company” and that they were made by a “temporary contractor” who has since left.
“We apologise unreservedly to Mumsnet,” the online grocery site added.
Ms Roberts wrote her post in a discussion on the forum about the Supreme Court ruling. In the post, she congratulated those on the website “who played a part in securing what I think most would agree is much-needed clarity in the Equality Act”.
The ruling was on a case campaign group For Women Scotland brought against the Scottish government, arguing that sex-based protections should only apply to people that are born female.
Judge Lord Hodge said the ruling should not be seen as a triumph of one side over the other, and stressed that the law still gives protection against discrimination to transgender people.
Mumsnet’s policy of allowing discussion of gender issues over a number of years had led to intense criticism, Ms Roberts said, adding that the site “risked being permanently labelled as bigoted, vicious, and ‘on the wrong side of history'”.
She claimed that a number of organisations had pulled their advertising over pressure from trans activists, both “internal and external”, threatening the survival of the site.
Ms Roberts added the site “never considered banning discussion of this issue altogether”.
Her post only listed one other example, saying Mumsnet had been “blacklisted on instruction from the top brass at Barclays”. Barclays said it would not comment when approached by the BBC.
