Nicola Sturgeon says rapists 'forfeit the right to be gender of their choice' as ex-SNP leader gets in a fresh muddle over trans prisoner Isla Bryson
The former Scottish first minister made the claim as she struggled to answer fresh questions about transgender prisoner Isla Bryson.
In a TV interview, Ms Sturgeon admitted she was 'partly responsible' for a loss of 'rationality' in the debate over trans rights.
The ex-SNP leader quit frontline politics in 2023 after a furious row over her Scottish Government's plans to introduce a system of self-identification for changing gender.
Ms Sturgeon had also been damaged by a row over Bryson, a double rapist who was sent to a female jail after announcing she was a trans women.
Bryson, who was convicted of attacking two women while known as a man called Adam Graham, was later moved to a male prison following a public outcry.
At the time, Ms Sturgeon refused to say whether she believed Bryson was a man or a woman.
But, speaking to ITV ahead of the publication of her memoir Frankly this week, the Glasgow Southside MSP said Bryson is a 'biological male'.
Ms Strugeon acknowledged she should have previously been 'much more straightforward' on the issue.
'Isla Bryson identified as a woman,' she told TV News At Ten presenter Julie Etchingham.
'I think what I would say now is anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice.'
She went on to add: 'That probably was not the best phrase to use…'
Asked why she doesn't simply say Bryson is a biological male, Ms Sturgeon replied: 'They are a biological male but that's about whether…. it gets back into the self ID thing.
'I should have been much more straightforward, I wasn't, but that's because of the debate. We'd lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I'm partly responsible for that.'
Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said: 'Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon must be delusional if she thinks the women of Scotland will swallow this drivel.'
The Conservative MSP said Ms Sturgeon had 'ignored all warnings that gender self-ID would be a gift to male predators like Isla Bryson'.
He added that the ex-SNP leader 'ordered her SNP MSPs to vote down my attempts to block rapists and other sex criminals from being able to legally change their gender by self-declaration'.
Mr Findlay continued: 'Her absurd ideological belief in self-ID collapses with her belated mealy-mouthed admission that this rapist is a man, but she still can't bring herself to say sorry for all the pain and misery she has caused.'
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