Russell Findlay said today the SNP’s focus on “gender nonsense” must end as he questioned John Swinney over the controversial case of NHS nurse Sandie Peggie, who faces the sack for raising concerns about a man using a woman’s changing room.
At First Minister’s Questions, the Scottish Conservative leader said the SNP should ditch the policy of gender self-identification and scrap an NHS “gender transitioning guide” which was published earlier this year.
Findlay said John Swinney’s government is wasting “too much time, energy and money on gender nonsense”.
He said the focus on gender showed how “utterly disconnected the Scottish Parliament has become from the real world”.
Findlay criticised the damaging influence of gender policies on Scotland’s public services, including in schools, prisons, rape crisis centres and many other settings.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Women’s spaces must be for women and girls. It’s not controversial to say that, it’s common sense.
“Every woman in Scotland should be able to raise concerns about men using women’s spaces without losing their jobs.
“This mess is happening because of the SNP’s gender self-identification policy and their obsession with fringe issues.
“The SNP have put gender ideology before the rights of women and girls, but also before NHS waiting lists, before justice for victims, before our children’s education.
“Scotland’s public services waste too much time, energy and money on gender nonsense.
“John Swinney says he doesn’t have regrets about backing gender reforms, but he really should be ashamed of the damage those reckless and dangerous policies have done to our public services and the rights of women and girls.
“The collective support of the SNP, Labour and Lib Dems for this confirms how utterly disconnected the Scottish Parliament has become from the real world.
“My party believes all government time and money should be devoted to fixing Scotland’s public services, not on radical fringe policies.
“That’s where we stand and it’s where mainstream Scotland stands too, but John Swinney just doesn’t seem to get it.”