06-05-2025
Nicola Sturgeon branded 'threat to our democracy' after refusing to apologise after Supreme Court gender ruling
Sturgeon told journalists she 'fundamentally disagreed' when asked if she should apologise to women in light of the Supreme Court ruling.
Nicola Sturgeon has been branded a "threat to our democracy" after she refused to apologise to campaigners who launched a successful legal challenge against the Scottish Government over trans rights.
The former SNP leader was quizzed by reporters today at the Scottish Parliament on the UK Supreme Court's recent ruling that sex is defined by biological sex under equality law.
Sturgeon, the driving force behind plans to make it easier for Scots to legally change their gender, has been repeatedly accused of ignoring concerns over the impact of the now abandoned reforms.
The former first minister today rejected calls for her to apologise to critics of gender self-ID, saying she 'fundamentally and respectfully disagreed' with such calls.
That stance was blasted by Joanna Cherry, a frequent critic of the Scottish Government's strategy on gender.
Cherry said: "Nicola Sturgeon is trying to rewrite history (again) but I and all the women who fought to protect our rights haven't forgotten that she called our views 'not valid' and branded us bigots etc.
"Her behaviour was a disgrace and an existential threat to our democracy".
The former MP, who lost her seat at last year's general election, previously claimed Sturgeon had called her "a bigot and a transphobe for sticking up for the rights of women and lesbians."
The ex-SNP leader was the driving force behind the controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Act that was eventually blocked by the UK Government in 2023.
The Supreme Court ruling followed years of legal wrangling which began in 2018 while Sturgeon was still first minister.
The EHRC has since published an interim update on what it means for the operation of single-sex spaces.
Speaking to reporters, Sturgeon said: "I would be very concerned if that interim guidance became the final guidance. I hope that's not the case because I think that potentially makes the lives of trans people almost unliveable."
Sturgeon also said it was not 'inevitable' that the Supreme Court judgment on the definition of a woman will make the lives of transgender people 'impossibly difficult'.
But the former first minister of Scotland said there was a 'danger' that those interpreting the law could put trans rights at risk.
'If that is the case, then yes, it would be my view that the law as it stands needs to be looked at,' she told reporters at Holyrood.
The three-year legal fight over gender started when campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) brought a series of challenges over the definition of "woman" included in legislation drafted at Holyrood - which mandated 50 per cent female representation on public boards.
The dispute centred on whether someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) recognising their gender as female should be treated as a woman under the UK 2010 Equality Act.
