Women won’t easily forget Scottish Labour’s gender turnaround

For the last fortnight, the employment tribunal brought by nurse Sandie Peggie against NHS Fife and Dr Beth Upton has gripped the nation. Nurse Peggie lodged a claim against both Dr Upton and the health board for sexual harassment, harassment relating to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation after she was suspended for questioning the presence of the transgender doctor in the female changing room. There is much more that could – and will – be said about the case, which will resume in July, but it is the response of Scottish politicians that has fuelled much ire over the past week in particular.

In an interview with the Holyrood Sources podcast, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and his Deputy Jackie Baillie revealed, after a prolonged silence on the matter, they support nurse Sandie Peggie ‘absolutely’. Sarwar added that he thinks cases such as Peggie’s indicate a level of ‘organisational capture’ in the institutions where they occur. ‘If we are to avoid a divisive culture war,’ he concludes, then Scottish Labour ‘must make it clear we support single sex spaces on the basis of biological sex.’