Marks & Spencer’s bra-fitting services are for designed for “biological females”, a spokesperson for the high-street store has said, following a row where a member of staff, claimed to be transgender, asked a customer if she needed help.

The 141-year-old retailer recently apologised to a mother who complained complained that an employee she believed to be trans offered to help her and her teenage daughter while in a store.

The mother claimed the member of staff was a “biological male”, according to  The Telegraph, causing her daughter to be “visibly upset” and “freaked out”. She added that it was “obviously the case” that the employee was transgender because they were “at least 6ft 2in” tall.

A customer service spokesperson said M&S was “truly sorry” for the “distress” and assured the mother and 14-year-old daughter that they would “receive assistance from a female colleague”. The employee does not carry out bra fittings but works in the clothing section, and so offering to help was part of their job, they added.

JK Rowling responded by calling for a boycott of M&S, seemingly forgetting that there was already meant to be one after campaigners complained that the retailers use of the phrase “First bras for fearless young things” in an advert last year erased women.

Meanwhile, the apology led a number of customers to complain and hundreds signed an open letter saying the complaint “should never have been legitimised, let alone publicised and appeased.”

It continued: “By doing so, M&S has not only failed to support its employee but has [also] inadvertently signalled that discriminatory views will be entertained – if not validated – under the guise of customer feedback.”

The retailer has since now issued a statement to clarify the situation.

“Our bra-fitting service has been developed for our female customers and all our bra fitters are female,” a spokesperson told The Scottish Sun. That meant “biological females”, they said.

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The controversy came in the wake of the UK Supreme Court ruling that the protected characteristic of “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act did not include trans people.

In the days that followed the judgement, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued draft guidance calling for service providers to bar trans men and women from single-sex services and facilities. 

It was later clarified that the “circumstances” were where “reasonable objection” could be taken to a trans person’s presence, including – such as in the case of female spaces – when “the gender reassignment process has given [a trans man] a masculine appearance or attributes”.

A leaked version of the EHRC’s finalised guidance, published by The Times last week, is said to be not too dissimilar to the draft guidelines and will ban trans people from changing rooms, wards and sporting competitions, as well as other spaces and services.

Speaking to The Scottish Sun, Fiona McAnena, campaign director of gender-critical group Sex Matters, called on M&S to “rethink its priorities and remember that women and girls have rights too”, adding: “Retailers that meet one group’s demands for special treatment without considering the impact on others are going to get into this sort of tangle.

“No matter how well-intentioned, policies built on the falsehood that ‘trans women are women’ inevitably compromise other people’s rights. Single-sex spaces become mixed sex as soon as a trans-identifying man is allowed to access a women’s toilet or changing room.”

Meanwhile, Virgin Active recently announced that its changing and bathroom facilities will be divided according to “biological sex”.