Sturgeon trans row set us back years, says Salmond

Gender law has squandered independence momentum, mentor warns Scottish leader

NICOLA STURGEON is facing a fresh crisis after she was accused by Alex Salmond of “throwing away” years of momentum for Scottish independence over her new trans laws.

In his first public intervention into the row, the former first minister said nationalists had finally managed to drive up support for separation to above 50 per cent in the polls.

However, Ms Sturgeon’s “self-indulgent nonsense” on gender self-identification laws had seen backing for independence decline sharply, he said.

It comes after Ms Sturgeon insisted she was not spooked by a Yougov poll, published at the weekend, that found backing for separation down from 53 per cent to 47 per cent in only a month, and support for the SNP at a Westminster election at 42 per cent.

Mr Salmond told a Burns supper in Dundee for his Alba Party on Saturday that he had assumed that the leaders of the nationalist movement “well understood” the need to win over “every part and section” of Scotland.

In footage posted to Twitter, he said: “But to get to a position where you say to a majority of our people that you cannot have single-sex spaces – prized and worked and strived for – because of some daft ideology imported from elsewhere and, as we’ve seen imperfectly understood by its proponents in Scotland, borders on the totally absurd.

“And the 6 per cent decline in independence vote over a month – think about that. Thirty years of gradually building, building, building, building till we get independence over 50 per cent and then thrown away with some selfindulgent nonsense. Which even if it was right, which it isnae, would hardly be tactically the most astute manoeuvre when we’re meant to be taking Scotland to its next date with destiny.”

Ms Sturgeon has said the next general election in Scotland will be a “de facto” independence referendum requiring 50 per cent of the popular vote for victory.

The crisis around Ms Sturgeon’s leadership intensified yesterday after she referred to Isla Bryson as “her”, following days of refusing to say whether she regarded the transgender rapist as male or female.

The First Minister mentioned “her” being a rapist when fielding questions about the scandal during a press conference, before quickly changing her answer to “the person”.

When challenged about the “Freudian slip”, and whether she regarded Bryson as female, the First Minister said: “She regards herself a woman, I regard the individual as a rapist.”

She was also forced to try to calm the civil war raging in the SNP by insisting that MPS and MSPS who oppose her Gender Recognition Reform Bill do not have to stand down.

In a victory for her internal critics and a sign of her waning authority, she said: “I don’t think anyone should be prevented from standing because they disagree with party policy on one particular issue.”

Shirley-anne Somerville, the Scottish Education Secretary and a Sturgeon loyalist, suggested at the weekend they should consider quitting. Alyn Smith, another Sturgeon supporter, last week said they should resign and stand as independents. Joanna Cherry, the

Edinburgh South West MP and a prominent opponent of the reforms, tweeted: “I hope others will now take her lead, back off & leave the decision to local members.”

The Yougov poll also showed Ms Sturgeon’s first negative approval rating since June 2018.

But she told a press conference yesterday that polls go up and down and the SNP would still win a “landslide victory” if there was a Westminster or Holyrood election now.

She added: “For me it’s not about ideology, it’s about the rights of a minority in our society who already struggle with stigma and discrimination.”

Court chiefs had wanted to send Bryson to Glasgow’s men-only Barlinnie prison but the rapist was instead initially sent to Cornton Vale women’s jail after being convicted last month.

Scottish Prison Service guidance states that trans criminals should be sent to the prison that matches their self-identified gender that they were living in prior to their conviction.