Joanna Cherry slates 'snide' Nicola Sturgeon's response to Supreme Court ruling
File photograph of former SNP MP Joanna Cherry speaking in the House of Commons (Image: PA)
JOANNA Cherry has hit out at Nicola Sturgeon's response to the Supreme Court verdict that women are defined by biology.
The top court's ruling was seen as a major defeat for the trans rights movement – and the former SNP first minister broke her silence on the issue on Monday.
Sturgeon said the judgment, which said women were defined in law by biology and which has triggered a roll-back in trans rights, could make trans people's lives 'unliveable'.
Cherry, one of the former FM's fiercest critics within the SNP, accused Sturgeon of 'fatuous hyperbole'.
She said 'To say that The Supreme Court judgment means we are 'at risk of making the lives of trans people almost unliveable' is the sort of fatuous hyperbole that she has indulged in in relation to these issues from the outset and it is deeply irresponsible for any politician to so misrepresent the judgment.'
Nicola Sturgeon reacts to UK Supreme Court judgement on the definition of a woman. Warns equalities watchdog guidance could make trans lives 'unliveable'. pic.twitter.com/YZcVEVusoa
— Craig Meighan (@craigymeighan) May 6, 2025
The former SNP MP, who lost her seat at last year's General Election, also claimed Sturgeon was trying to 'rewrite history' by saying that all sides of the debate had been listened to when drawing up controversial trans rights laws, which have since been shelved.
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The SNP's Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which sought to make the process of getting a Gender Recognition Certificate easier, was criticised by gender critical feminists for promoting 'self-ID' practices, which they said would mean anyone who claimed to be a woman would be considered one in law.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon breaks silence on Supreme Court gender ruling
Cherry added: 'It's simply not true to say that all opinions were taken account of in this debate.
'She branded the views of those of us who pointed out the implications for the rights of women, including lesbians, as 'not valid' and she called us transphobes bigots, racists and homophobes.'
Speaking to reporters in Holyrood as John Swinney prepared to set out the SNP's legislative agenda, Sturgeon (below) also claimed that the Supreme Court ruling had contributed to the Scottish Government shelving its plans to make misogyny a specific hate crime.
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(Image: Andrew Milligan)
Cherry said: ''Her snide suggestion that the Supreme Court judgement has stymied the Misogyny Bill has no basis in fact unless, of course, she is referring to the fact that misogyny was going to be defined as including hatred against men.
'She seems also to be forgetting that it was her Government that prevented sex being included as a protected characteristic in the Hate Crime Bill.
'Nicola Sturgeon is trying to rewrite history in relation to these matters, but those of us who fought her every inch of the way in her attack on the rights of women and LGB people will not let her do so.'
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