Kemi Badenoch: SNP has failed women

Women in Scotland are being put in danger because self-ID policy is still being pushed by SNP ministers, public bodies and charities, according to Tory leadership frontrunner Kemi Badenoch.

The former equalities minister launched a strongly worded attack on the ‘dangerous’ approach still being taken by the Scottish Government and said gender self-ID must be removed from policy-making.

She accused national charity Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) of a ‘muddled’ understanding of the law after a rape support centre in Glasgow severed ties with it because it wanted to provide a single-sex service staffed by an all-female workforce.

She also claimed that people are trying to push forward their own ‘political agenda’ in such organisations.

In an interview with the Mail during a visit to Glasgow as campaigning in the leadership contest enters its final few days, Ms Badenoch also condemned previous Tory leaders for treating the SNP ‘as if it was Scotland’ – and said she won’t hold back on criticism.

Raising concerns that self-ID policy is still being promoted by public bodies, charities and employers in Scotland despite sex in the Equality Act referring to biological sex, Ms Badenoch said: ‘This issue with Rape Crisis Scotland is an example of what happens when people do not actually look at what the law says and start bringing in policy that is derived from campaign groups.

‘Many of the campaign groups try to rewrite policy that is not what the law says and I think that Rape Crisis Scotland got very muddled in its understanding of what provisions it needed to provide.

‘There are a lot of people who have gone into these organisations not to serve the women but to deal with their own political agenda or to push forward their own political campaigning...We need to get the politics out of a lot of service provision.’

She added: ‘We need to get the concept of self-ID out of a lot of public policy-making where people think that is what the law is. That is how we ended up with the Isla Bryson case, where we had a rapist going into a women’s prison.

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‘It is very dangerous, it is bad for women...I’m actually quite worried we have policy-makers who don’t understand.’

Pressed on whether she was referring to the Scottish Government, she said: ‘Yes, the SNP and the Green Party certainly don’t understand. They were very confused, they were not paying attention and this is one of the reasons why I want to ensure that we have the very best people standing for all of the various parliaments and all of the political positions.

‘I don’t think the SNP has been picking the best people and that is how they ended up getting into a mess over this policy.’

The comments come days after Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis severed links with Rape Crisis Scotland because it wanted to provide a single-sex service with an all-female staff, but believed this was ‘at odds’ with the policy of RCS.

RCS chief executive Sandy Brindley has faced calls to quit. She apologised last month after another centre in Edinburgh – run by a trans woman – failed to provide single-sex spaces for 16 months.

The SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act had proposed removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria when people apply for a gender recognition certificate, as well as other changes.

The legislation was blocked from gaining Royal Assent by the former Conservative UK Government.

A Rape Crisis Scotland spokesman said: ‘Rape Crisis Scotland and our independent member centres have decades of experience supporting survivors of sexual violence. Our priorities are meeting their needs, improving society’s response to sexual violence, and working to prevent such violence.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We strongly support the separate and single sex exemptions in the Equality Act 2010, and welcome Rape Crisis Scotland’s commitment to ensuring women-only spaces are delivered consistently across Scotland.’