Swinney and Sturgeon should say sorry to women and transgender people – SNP MSP

An SNP MSP has called on First Minister John Swinney to say sorry to women and transgender people following this month’s landmark Supreme Court ruling.

Michelle Thomson said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon should also apologise.

The Falkirk East MSP said transgender people had been “led up the garden path” by those who supported gender self-ID.

Her comments follow interim guidance by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that “trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use women’s facilities” in areas such as hospitals, shops and restaurants.

Earlier, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie warned the guidance could breach the human rights of transgender people.

The intervention from the EHRC, which also says transgender people should not be left with no facilities to use, comes after the UK Supreme Court declared the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Appearing on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Thomson said transgender people had been “led to believe for quite some time that self-ID gave them an entitlement that is not actually the case”.

As well as the First Minister, she said other politicians should issue an apology, both to women and transgender people.

Ms Thomson said: “In reality, let’s be clear: Keir Starmer should also be apologising, Nicola Sturgeon should also be apologising because people expect government to make clear policies that can be translated into law, and this has been quite a mess for some time, and has only been cleared up as a result of the ruling by the Supreme Court.”

She urged Mr Swinney to “exhibit very clear leadership” on the issue and “come out really strongly” to warn the organisations of the legal consequences if they do not abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling on single-sex spaces, although she said he had been clear that the law should be followed.

She said: “This is the Supreme Court that has made a ruling. It’s not some airy-fairy guidance. It’s the highest court across the UK.

“I think he needs to be very clear that where it is possible immediately and now they must adhere to the law.”

She added: “There are some people who have been led up the garden path.

“I think it’s terrible some trans people who have been told that they could operate under the basis of self-ID when the Supreme Court judgment made it so clear that that was not their legal interpretation of the Equality Act.”

Mr Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Green Party, called for the updated EHRC advice to be withdrawn.

He accused the watchdog of not consulting transgender people before having “rushed out” the advice.

He told the programme: “This is not guidance. It’s an update which adds more confusion and a great deal more anxiety and stress to people’s lives, not just trans people themselves and their loved ones, but also anybody else who, for whatever reason, doesn’t conform with widespread gender norms and can be challenged in the same way that trans people are when they are out and about, and also people who run businesses, workplaces and even associations.”

He said the new advice “strikes at the very heart of the LGBT community’s right to organise and exist on its own terms”.

He added: “It’s going to cause a great deal of confusion. It already is causing a great deal of anxiety and it will do far more harm than good.”

The MSP said the EHRC “appears to be saying” that transgender people should be “forced to out themselves on an almost daily basis”.

He went on: “The independence of the judiciary needs to be respected, but it does not forbid people from criticising the arguments that have been made in court, or from disagreeing with a specific decision.

“I strongly disagree with this one and I believe that it is in danger of placing the UK in breach of trans people’s human rights, as it was decades ago.”