Will John Swinney abandon Sturgeon’s gender bill?

There may be a new First Minister in the driving seat but can the SNP overtake Labour’s lead in the polls? Just this morning, Savanta revealed that, for the very first time in the pollster’s history, Labour is four points ahead of the SNP in Westminster voting intention. It’s certainly not the best start to the job for freshly-appointed John Swinney…

And despite officially leading his country for about, er, two days, Swinney is already facing dissent over his decision-making. In a move that was widely anticipated, the First Minister made Kate Forbes his second-in-command – much to the dismay of the Scottish Greens. The eco-activists promptly fell into fits of rage, ranting and raving about ‘progressive values’ and a return to the 1950s. Patrick Harvie’s barmy army voted against Forbes becoming Deputy First Minister and have been clear that the SNP’s minority government won’t be able to rely on their unconditional support in future. Mr S would, however, advise them to save some fury yet for what sounds like a watering down of the SNP’s stance on gender reform laws…

Scotland’s rather controversial Gender Recognition Reform bill was heralded by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon during her tenure, as she led her merry band of nationalists ever further to the left. In the face of revelations about sex offenders being housed in women’s prisons and overwhelming public opposition to the bill, the Dear Leader insisted on trying to make it law. After an intervention by Scotland Secretary Alister Jack in an unprecedented use of Section 35 of the Scotland Act, the bill was blocked and Sturgeon quit soon after. Her successor – the establishment’s very own Humza Yousaf – bullishly pursued a legal challenge in the hope he could overturn the Westminster government’s decision. Hapless Humza spent about £230,000 on legal fees to, er, watch as Edinburgh’s Court of Session sided with Jack’s decision, before then receiving a bill of around £150,000 from Rishi Sunak’s government to cover their legal costs. What a mess… 

Failure-prone Yousaf was determined not to go down without a fight, adamant he would go on to work with a UK government to amend the bill and make it law. But today, in a rare display of something resembling common sense, his successor appears to have other ideas. Speaking to Sky News this morning, the new First Minister was quizzed on his plans for the bill. ‘Honest John’ admitted:

The reality of the situation we face is that the Supreme Court has said that we can’t legislate in that area, we can’t take forward that legislation. So, I accept the rule of law – and that’s the position we find ourselves in, that we cannot proceed with that legislation.

‘So will you abandon the Gender Recognition Reform bill?’ pushed the presenter. ‘Well we quite simply can’t proceed with it,’ the FM retorted. ‘It’s legislation that can’t be implemented. We cannot take that forward.’ That all sounds rather affirmative to Steerpike, although the SNP administration hurriedly issued a statement after Swinney’s remarks that said: ‘The Scottish government’s position is simple – UK government should life their Section 35 order.’ How curious.

Mr S noted that Swinney seems to have become slightly muddled by the whole thing, however. It was not, in fact, the Supreme Court that upheld the government’s veto but Scotland’s Court of Session. Not that the fine print has ever been of much interest to the SNP in the past…

Watch the clip here: