John Swinney to face MSPs at FMQs amid ongoing changing room row

John Swinney is set to take questions from MSPs at Holyrood amid an ongoing row over single-sex spaces.

It comes as the First Minister said he did not regret backing Holyrood’s controversial gender recognition reforms.

On Wednesday, Swinney said the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was “the product of careful consideration” and scrutiny by MSPs.

However, other politicians have since U-turned on their support for the legislation, including Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy Dame Jackie Baillie.

The legislation aimed to simplify the process trans people go through to get a gender recognition certificate in their acquired gender and was passed overwhelmingly in Holyrood by 86 votes to 39 in 2022.

However, the Bill was later blocked by the then-Conservative government, which said it violated equality laws.

The issue has returned to the fore amid an ongoing NHS Fife employment tribunal, which came after a female nurse was disciplined after complaining about sharing a changing room with a transgender doctor.

Swinney is likely to face questions on the issue when he takes questions from MSPs from noon on Thursday.

Sarwar has said he “regrets” his party’s support for the Bill, saying he would have opposed it “knowing what we know now”.

Having expressed support for Sandie Peggie, the nurse at the centre of the Fife tribunal, he said: “No nurse should ever face disciplinary action for refusing to share a changing room.”

He added Scottish Labour supports single-sex spaces based on biological sex, telling the Holyrood Sources podcast: “If we are going to stop falling into divisive culture war politics, and we are going to make progress as a nation, we have got to say, quite clearly, we support single-sex spaces based on biological sex, we respect the Equality Act.”

Swinney has so far declined to comment on the ongoing tribunal, which led the Scottish Conservatives to accuse him of “moral cowardice” for choosing not to issue a statement on single-sex spaces.

Tess White, a Tory MSP and critic of gender self-ID policies, said: “The situation that has arisen in NHS Fife speaks volumes about what is happening behind closed doors in Scotland’s public sector under this SNP Government.

“Women are watching today. The public have had enough of the recent abdication, obfuscation and moral cowardice from this Government.”

Meanwhile the Scottish Greens have not waivered in their support for gender reforms, blasting Sarwar for U-turning on the issue.

Green MSP Ross Greer posted on X this week: “Another step in Anas’ latest attempt to reinvent himself, his third in the time I’ve known him.

“A leader with absolutely no core values whose previous promises to the LGBTQ community were as meaningless as his promises of no austerity under Labour and to support Grangemouth workers.”