JOHN Swinney has accused the Scottish Tories of U-turning on trans rights – after highlighting their previous support for making the definition of women “as inclusive as possible”.
At First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Swinney hit back at Tory attacks on the Scottish Government’s Supreme Court defeat last week on the definition of a woman.
The UK’s highest court ruled last week that women were defined by biology in the 2010 Equality Act.
But in response to the Scottish Tories claiming the SNP had been captured by “fringe” concerns, Swinney brought up historical comments by one of the party’s current MSPs in support of trans rights.
He referred to comments made by former MSP Alison Harris, who told the Parliament in 2018 that Annie Wells (below), currently an MSP for Glasgow, was supportive of the changes to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill which sparked the Supreme Court showdown.
Swinney said that Wells had previously been described as welcoming “positive changes” to the bill, which meant that trans women would be included in quotas for gender balance on public boards.
Wells was said to have “in particular” welcomed a move to “broaden the definition of women so that the legislation should be inclusive as possible, recognising that not all trans women possess a Gender Recognition Certificate”.
He added: “I'm simply reading that into the official report because the Conservatives have changed their position on this, and they have changed their position from what they said in 2018.
“What my Government will do, presiding officer, is my Government will do what it always does: follow the rule of law, take careful account of the decisions and the context in which we take our decisions and act wisely to protect the rights of all within Scotland because the first duty of the Government is to protect the rights of everyone in Scottish society.”
Earlier, the First Minister had said that the Scottish Government was working through the implications of the Supreme Court ruling, after Findlay demanded that trans women in the female prison estate should served their sentences in men's prisons.
Former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross later asked the First Minister whether he believed “that a trans woman is a woman”.
Swinney replied: “I’ve set out that the Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court, which ruled that a woman in the Equality Act 2010 is defined by biological sex.”
The First Minister has previously dodged questions on whether he believes trans women are women.
Speaking earlier this week, Swinney said that the Supreme Court had "settled" the issue, adding: "The Supreme Court has given us the basis of law for that to be the case and that’s what I accept.”
