David Brown, Chief News Correspondent

Maya Forstater, centre, lost her job over her hostility to gender recognition reforms

JK Rowling has been accused of transphobia after expressing her support for a sacked researcher who lost a landmark case after arguing that people cannot change their biological sex.

The Harry Potter author posted her backing for Maya Forstater, a tax expert who lost her job at a think tank over posts on Twitter in which she questioned whether trans women were women. Ms Forstater, 45, whose contract at the Centre for Global Development was not renewed, brought her case to an employment tribunal, arguing that she had been discriminated against because of her beliefs.

On Wednesday an employment judge dismissed the case, ruling that her views on transgender women were “absolutist” and did not constitute a protected belief under equality law.

JK Rowling, who has more than 14 million Twitter followers, was among those who responded to the ruling

Judge James Tayler…