I’m proud to say the UK Government has protected women’s rights and safety in Scotland.
The UK Government Scottish Secretary Alister Jack has been entirely vindicated in his decision to object to the SNP’s dangerous Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill.
On Friday, the UK Government won a decisive legal victory that has now stopped the SNP’s gender bill from becoming law.
The SNP’s arguments about why the Bill should be allowed to go ahead were firmly rejected by a Scottish court.
It was a humiliating defeat for Humza Yousaf and the SNP. They have wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in a doomed legal challenge.
I am personally delighted that the GRR Bill has been stopped. As a member of the Scottish Parliament committee that scrutinised these gender proposals from the beginning, I was acutely aware of how flawed and short-sighted this Bill was. I fought against it at the committee stage, submitting a minority report to raise my concerns about the damage the Bill would do to women’s rights and safety.
When it reached the floor of the Scottish Parliament, I spoke out against the Bill and submitted numerous amendments to try and fix the flaws in it. Or, at least, limit the damage the Bill would do.
Some of my amendments sought to protect single-sex spaces. They were aimed at preventing violent men from accessing women’s personal areas. I was stunned when they were voted down.
My other proposed changes to the Bill sought to protect religious freedoms, especially for people from BAME backgrounds like myself. I couldn’t believe that many MSPs were prepared to ignore legitimate concerns from Sikh and Muslim groups who felt the Bill was an overreach.
Despite all my attempts to change the Bill, the SNP passed it anyway, helped by a majority of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green MSPs.
But thankfully, the UK Government’s court victory has prevented this reckless Bill from becoming law.
The SNP Government must now accept this decision, stop obsessing about gender ideology and focus on the big challenges facing Scotland.
If Humza Yousaf drags the UK Government to court over this Bill again, that would be a shameful waste of government resources.
He cannot continue to put women’s safety at risk by pursuing this dangerous legislation. He needs to give it a rest and get back to issues that really matter, such as investing in schools and reducing NHS waiting lists.
