The Scottish Conservatives will attempt to oust Green MSP Maggie Chapman from her role as the deputy convener of a Holyrood committee, following her comments on the Supreme Court gender ruling.
The UK’s highest court ruled last Wednesday the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
During a transgender rights rally in Aberdeen, Ms Chapman had condemned what she called the “bigotry, prejudice and hatred that we see coming from the Supreme Court”.
Ms Chapman’s comments prompted an intervention from the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Roddy Dunlop KC, who said they were “appalling” and especially inappropriate given she is the deputy convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities Committee.
Conservative MSP Tess White has now lodged a motion to remove her from this role, which will be the first item on the agenda when the seven-person committee meets on Tuesday.
If the motion is supported by the committee it will need to be ratified by the whole Parliament.
Ms White’s motion will be backed by her Conservative colleague Pam Gosal.
Also on the committee are one Labour and three SNP MSPs – including convener Karen Adam who will have the casting vote in the event of a tie.
The Tories have indicated they will explore other ways of raising the issue in Parliament if the motion falls.
Ms White said: “Maggie Chapman’s comments were utterly outrageous and totally inexcusable for any MSP to make.
“Her position as deputy convener of Holyrood’s Equalities Committee is untenable. I urge my fellow MSPs on the committee to do the right thing on Tuesday and back my call to recommend that she be removed from her position.
“MSPs of all persuasions have a duty to respect the rule of law, no matter what they feel about a particular verdict.
“It was shameless that Maggie Chapman described the highest court in the land in these terms and it is little wonder that led to an unprecedented intervention from the Faculty of Advocates.”
First Minister John Swinney has also said Ms Chapman’s comments were “wrong” in that she questioned the independence of the judiciary.
On Friday, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was asked about Ms Chapman’s position as deputy convener of the committee.
He said: “Ultimately this is a matter for the committee and for structures of the Parliament.
“But I think there is a broader point here which is people have strong views, and I am perfectly relaxed with people having strong views, people can have big disagreements, that’s part of our democracy, part of debates.
“But when we get into the place of attacking the judiciary, attacking law officers, attacking judges, undermining the rule of law and calling people bigoted or racist or sexist based on judgments made on the evidence of the law, I think that takes us down a very, very dangerous route.”
Ms Chapman defended her comments when speaking to journalists at Holyrood earlier this week, saying: “I think what’s very, very clear is that in its deliberations leading up to the ruling last week, the Supreme Court didn’t speak to a single trans person.
“We have in our justice system, in our court system, the sort of foundational belief that when considering an issue like this, people should hear both sides.
“People should hear the different sides of a debate, of a controversy, of a story. The Supreme Court did not do that.”
The Scottish Greens declined to comment on the committee meeting.
