The Harry Potter author was joined by friends to celebrate the launch of The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht

India Willoughby, left, has compared JK Rowling and her friends to Nazis (Image: Getty)

India Willoughby has compared JK Rowling and other gender-critical females to Nazis as she launched yet another attack on the Harry Potter author. Willoughby, who is transgender, said a meeting of Rowling and fellow activists had a “look of Nuremberg”.

The former Big Brother contestant, 58, was responding to a post of Rowling’s which showed those involved in a recent book about the gender ideology battle meeting up to celebrate its success. The German city of Nuremberg was the scene of infamous Nazi rallies in the 1930s.

Edinburgh-based Rowling, 58, played a part in The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht. The book, which has been hugely popular, documents the rise of a grass roots campaign to protect women’s rights. Many were inspired to get involved due to the Scottish Government’s attempts to change the law so it would be easier for a biological male to identify as a woman.

Rowling posted an image of 35 women involved in the campaigns, including the likes of MSPs Pam Gosal, Rachael Hamilton and Ash Regan, as well as Joanna Cherry MP. Also there were Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Susan Dalgety, the brainchild’s behind the book.

Rowling said: “Last night, some Scottish witches who won’t burn got together for cake, Prosecco and many a laugh. A wonderful, slightly belated launch for our book, ‘The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht’, available from all good bookshops!”

She laughed off Willoughby’s comments with emojis as many others hailed the group for their efforts. Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said they were “on the right side of history”. It comes as Rowling accused the Labour Party of ‘abandoning’ women.

Writing in The Times, Rowling, who has donated to the party, said: “As long as Labour remains dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain the rights their foremothers thought were won for all time, I’ll struggle to support them. The women who wouldn’t wheesht didn’t leave Labour. Labour abandoned them.”

She continued: “I’ve been a Labour voter, a member (no longer), donor (not recently) and campaigner (ditto) all my adult life. I want to see an end to this long stretch of chaotic and often calamitous Tory rule. I want to want to vote Labour.”

The issue of transgender rights has long caused issues within the party. In 2021, Sir Keir described comments by MP Rosie Duffield that only women have a cervix as “something that shouldn’t be said and were not right”.

But in a televised debate on Thursday, the Labour leader agreed with one of his predecessors, Sir Tony Blair, saying “biologically, a woman is with a vagina and a man is with a penis”. Asked about Rowling’s comments on Saturday, Sir Keir said: “I’m really proud of the long history of the Labour Party in making real progress on women’s rights, passing landmark legislation that has changed millions of lives.”