EUAN MCCOLM: Once a challenger to become First Minister, Sarwars cowardice in trans debate marks him as unfit to hold office

Boy, was I wrong about Anas Sarwar.

When the Glasgow MSP became leader of Scottish Labour in 2021, I reckoned him the best candidate to restore the fortunes of a party that had lost its way.

Energetic and ambitious, Mr Sarwar seemed a serious challenger to become Scotland’s next First Minister.

Today, I’m ashamed to admit I ever entertained that idea.

After the Supreme Court last week delivered its ruling that a trans woman is not, in law, a woman, Mr Sarwar was swift to respond.

The Scottish Labour leader announced that he had always called for the protection of single sex spaces on the basis of biological sex.

This came as news to his colleagues at Holyrood who, in December 2022, were whipped by Mr Sarwar to support then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s crackpot plan to allow anyone to self-identify into the legally-recognised sex of their choosing.

For refusing to follow orders, Labour MSPs Carol Mochan and Claire Baker were forced to resign their front-bench roles.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has changed his story since whipping his MSPs to vote for the SNPs gender reform bill

A week after Scottish Labour made his laughable claim to be an ally of women, I continue to struggle to understand what he thought he was doing. 

The official record of Scottish Parliamentary business shows that Mr Sarwar was enthusiastic in his support for Ms Sturgeon’s poorly considered plan to erase women’s rights at the behest of trans activists.

Does the Scottish Labour leader think, perhaps, that the women who tried to warn him that reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) would remove their hard-won rights have been struck by a collective case of amnesia? Or maybe he’s the one suffering catastrophic memory loss (in which case, a period away from frontline politics would be in his - as well as our - best interests).

The bleak facts of the matter are that, at best, Mr Sarwar’s concern for women’s rights doesn’t go beyond what one might call a passing interest.

When parliamentary colleagues - along with countless feminist campaigners - implored the Scottish Labour leader not to throw his all behind Ms Sturgeon’s plan to reform the GRA, he flatly ignored them.

Desperate to be seen as being “on the right side of history” - and frightened of a backlash from angry trans activists - Mr Sarwar happily voted in favour of a law that would have made it illegal to keep men out of women’s refuges, prisons, and public bathrooms.

The Scottish Labour leader’s revisionist version of events is utterly pathetic. 

Even the dogs in the streets know he cared nothing about the rights of biological women when MSPs sought to change the law on gender more than two years ago.

Nicola Sturgeon was the driving force behind the divisive gender reform act

The Labour boss - in common with other senior MSPs who should have known better - was saved from the fall-out of his own reckless stupidity by former Tory Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, who blocked reform of the GRA on the grounds that it would negatively impact the UK-wide Equality Act.

In the two years since that decision, Mr Sarwar has had ample opportunity to atone for his foolishness. He has made little effort to do so.

In February of this year, the MSP admitted to “regret” over his support for changing the GRA.

This change of position was not, I’m afraid, born of true regret. 

Instead, the Labour boss was spooked by public reaction to the case of nurse Sandie Peggie, currently suing NHS Fife and trans-identifying doctor Beth Upton for discrimination and harassment after she was forced to endure a disciplinary process for complaining she should not have to share a changing room with someone born male.

Mr Sarwar said that “knowing what we know now” Scottish Labour would not have backed the gender reform bill. “No nurse,” he said, “should ever face disciplinary action for refusing to share a changing room.”

But that wasn’t a mea culpa. Rather, it was a confession that, at the very best, he had not fully considered the implications for women and girls of a law that would dismantle both their legal rights and the fundamental principles of safeguarding.

There was no information about gender reforms available in February of this year that was not available to Mr Sarwar in December of 2022.

We should not expect politicians to be infallible. They are (so far as I am aware) all human and, therefore, imperfect.

But we are entitled to expect that when politicians get things wrong they admit as much and apologise.

When Mr Sarwar and other self-identifying “progressives” voted to back gender reforms, they did so in the knowledge that the majority of voters supported the feminist campaigners leading the opposition to their plans.

No politician makes the decision to support a policy without weighing up its consequences. 

The record shows that, having done so, the Scottish Labour leader preferred to back the demands of men who want access to female-only spaces over the concerns of women who - quite rightly - believe their safety should come first.

After the Supreme Court ruled, last week, on the question of whether a gender recognition certificate actually changed someone’s sex, Mr Sarwar had an opportunity not only to admit he’d got things wrong but to drag his party back to where voters stand on the issue.

No, it would not have been easy and, yes, it would have provoked the ire of trans activists, but some honesty and humility would have gone a long way.

I have the pleasure of knowing many of the leading figures in the ongoing fight to defend women’s rights against the relentless attacks of crank activists. 

These women are clever and focused but they are not vengeful. 

They would have welcomed, from Mr Sarwar, a clear and unequivocal admission that he’d messed up and they’d have welcomed him as a new ally.

Instead, those brave feminists - many of whom have suffered violence, threats and sackings for daring to state that biological sex is real and immutable - are entitled to view him with contempt. 

I can confirm that I’m yet to speak to a single campaigner against gender reforms who does not do so.

The Scottish Labour leader finds himself despised both by the trans activists he once sought to impress and the women whose rights he now claims to hold precious. This is not a place in which a politician of real integrity could have ended up.

Perhaps there are some out there willing to believe Mr Sarwar really is a champion of women’s rights but there are many more who know the truth and they will not - must not - let him forget it.

Anas Sarwar simply cannot be trusted when it comes to the rights of women. His moral cowardice over such a fundamentally important matter should mark him as unfit ever to hold the office of First Minister.