Eat humble pie and ditch trans laws, Sturgeon told
NICOLA STURGEON has been told to “eat some humble pie” and abandon her gender reforms after she recorded her worst ever approval rating.
A poll carried out after the controversial decision to place transgender rapist Isla Bryson in a female jail suggests that the nationalists are haemorrhaging support owing to the First Minister’s position on transgender rights.
Ms Sturgeon’s personal approval rating has fallen to minus four, Yougov research found, the lowest recorded since she took over from Alex Salmond in 2014. Meanwhile, support for both independence and the SNP in Holyrood elections dropped by six points in a month.
One of Ms Sturgeon’s senior ministers yesterday suggested that parliamentarians who oppose the First Minister’s stance on transgender rights should consider quitting the party.
However, Joanna Cherry, the lawyer and SNP MP, called on Ms Sturgeon to back down over an issue which SNP insiders fear has left them looking extreme and out of touch.
Ms Cherry tweeted: “It’s time to admit that feminist criticisms of self-id and the [Gender Recognition Reform Bill] were right, eat some humble pie and sort this mess out before it does any more damage to the reputation of our party, parliament and the cause of Scotland’s independence.”
Ms Sturgeon has previously said she will go to court in a bid to overturn the UK Government’s veto on her plans to allow Scots to easily change their legal sex by signing a declaration.
However, her claims that the system would pose no risk to women or singlesex spaces have been undermined by the case of Bryson, who was initially placed in a female jail under a policy that follows the same principles as the proposed self-identification law.
Joan Mcalpine, one of Ms Sturgeon’s former MSPS, lambasted her decision to go to war with Westminster over gender self-id and accused her of damaging both her party and independence cause. She said: “Not since Bonnie Prince Charlie sacrificed his Highlanders at Culloden has a Scottish battleground been so illchosen. It’s not so much dying on a hill, as succumbing in a quagmire.
“This ideology is a personal passion
‘This ideology is a personal passion of the First Minister so she must answer for any harm done’
of the First Minister so she must answer for any harm done – to women, obviously, but also to her party and the cause of independence it was founded to champion.”
The Yougov poll, carried out for The Sunday Times, found that Ms Sturgeon’s approval rating had fallen to minus four, down from plus seven in October.
It is the first negative approval rating recorded for the First Minister since June 2018, when she was on minus two.
Meanwhile, support for independence was down to 47 per cent, from 53 per cent a month ago.
Backing for the SNP Holyrood elections was down six points to 44 per cent for constituency votes, and down four to 36 per cent on the regional list – the lowest in five years.
For Westminster elections, the party polled 42 per cent, the lowest recorded since 2019. Jim Sillars, the former SNP deputy leader, accused Ms Sturgeon of making allies of “zealots” while ignoring biology and public opinion.
Alex Bell, a former SNP policy adviser, claimed Ms Sturgeon had “made Holyrood look stupid” and that her about-turns following the Bryson case amounted to the “betrayal of Scotland by its First Minister”. Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly refused to say whether Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham, is male or female but claimed last week that the rapist was probably faking being trans as part of a bid to gain access to women’s spaces.
SNP ministers claimed repeatedly that predatory men would not change their legal sex to access women’s spaces and Ms Sturgeon previously dismissed feminist concerns as “not valid”.
Under Ms Sturgeon’s planned system, Scots would be able to change their legal sex by signing a declaration. Existing safeguards, such as the need to obtain a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and live in an “acquired gender” for two years, would be watered down or scrapped entirely.
Bryson was moved to a men’s jail following a public backlash. A temporary pause on male-bodied trans prisoners with a history of violence against women being moved to female jails has also been put in place. Meanwhile, a gender-critical campaigner has claimed the Bryson scandal caused Scotland to “wake up” to the dangers of transgender ideology.
Kellie-jay Keen-minshull – also known as Posie Parker – staged a protest in Glasgow yesterday against the gender proposals, which were passed by a majority of MSPS in December but blocked by the UK Government.
Despite fears that the rally would be marred by violence, with a counter-protest also taking place, groups were kept separated by police. Two arrests were made for breach of the peace.