Nicola Sturgeon: 'No regrets' about bringing in Scots transgender law
Nicola Sturgeon says she has ‘no regrets’ about bringing in controversial Scots transgender law and ‘would vote for it again tomorrow’ and claims the UK government is ‘terrified’ of Scottish independence in Edinburgh Fringe appearance
Nicola Sturgeon today defiantly said she had ‘no regrets’ about a controversial Scots transgender rights law she introduced before quitting power.
The former First Minister said she would vote for the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill ‘tomorrow’ if it came back to Holyrood, in an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The law, which makes it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender from as young as 16, was vetoed by Rishi Sunak after being passed by the Scottish Government.
Her remarks came after a leading SNP sceptic of the law, MP Joanna Cherry, said intolerance in the party was ‘is a thing of the past’ under its new leadership.
Her views on gender reform legislation clashed with those of Ms Sturgeon and the party’s ex-Westminster leader, Ian Blackford.
In a wide-ranging discussion for Iain Dale’s All Talk show, Ms Sturgeon also suggested that the Tory government’s refusal to grant a new independence referendum was a sign of how ‘terrified’ it was of losing.
And she insisted that she did not quit in February because she knew she was likely to be arrested in Police Scotland’s investigation into missing SNP money – something that happened in April.
The former First Minister said she would vote for the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill ‘tomorrow’ if it came back to Holyrood, in an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
A leading SNP sceptic of the law, MP Joanna Cherry, said intolerance in the party was ‘is a thing of the past’ under its new leadership, in a snipe at her former boss
In an unprecedented move, the Prime Minister in January prevented the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from becoming law, using devolved powers agreed under Labour in 1998.
He moved to prevent the Holyrood legislation from receiving royal assent after warnings it would cause UK-wide legislative chaos.
The SNP has threatened to try to overturn the block at the High Court, despite being told it will fail.
Ms Sturgeon today said: ‘I don’t have any regrets about the way I handled it … (I) would vote for it again tomorrow…
‘I’m a feminist, I have been a feminist all my life, I will be a feminist till the day I die. Women’s rights matter to me more than most other things.
‘But I also think that what is probably the most stigmatised, vulnerable, discriminated against group in society deserves a better crack of the whip in terms of just being themselves. I don’t think these things are irreconcilable.
‘If I have got a regret it is that I didn’t manage to reconcile them a bit more.’
Ms Sturgeon was also quizzed about her arrest in June, which followed that of her husband, Peter Murrell, in April – with police also searching their family home.
She said she did not know police were going to search her home until officers knocked on the door, but she had ‘faith’ that Police Scotland’s actions were ‘justified’.
Describing it as ‘not the best day of my life’, Ms Sturgeon said she was ‘absolutely certain I have done nothing wrong’.
Officers from Police Scotland searched the couple’s home, in the outskirts of Glasgow, with Mr Murrell arrested and questioned by police before being released without charge.
Mr Dale asked her if she had quit as first minister and SNP leader earlier this year because she had ‘got wind’ of developments in the police investigation, which is probing the whereabouts of about £600,000 that was donated to the SNP for independence campaigning.
Ms Sturgeon said she was aware of the investigation, known as Operation Branchform, telling the audience: ‘It had been under way for years. I was aware of that.’
But regarding the developments in that investigation, she insisted: ‘I had no idea what was about to happen.’
Ms Sturgeon said if she had had ‘any idea about what was going to unfold’ she would ‘not have been able to function’ in the period between announcing her departure in February and leaving office at the end of March.
Asked when she first realised the search of her home was happening, she said: ‘When it happened.’
Dale asked her if that was ‘literally the knock on the door?’
Ms Sturgeon told him: ‘Yes. I’m not going to go any further into that, maybe one day I will be able to.’
She continued: ‘It’s obviously been a really difficult, traumatic experience. People live through worse, I’m not going to overstate that.
‘My touchstone I guess in all of it, all along, is I am confident in my own position. I am absolutely certain I have done nothing wrong.
‘Therefore I need to and do trust in the process.
‘The police are doing a job and therefore I have to have faith that everything they are doing in the process of that is justified.
‘I am going to continue to have faith in that.
‘The touchstone is the confidence in my own position.’
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