Scotland’s First Minister insisted he is “satisfied” his Government has complied with a landmark Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender – despite claims from one of his party’s former MPs that he is a “coward” who has failed to implement it.
Joanna Cherry KC, a prominent SNP MP until 2024, told the Times newspaper that while writing her autobiography she had become “absolutely disgusted by the SNP, and ashamed of being a member”.
Ms Cherry revealed she had left the party as she claimed its Holyrood election manifesto – unveiled on Thursday – had made clear the SNP “intend to continue ignoring the law” on biological sex.
She also alleged the First Minister is “too afraid” to stand up to his party on the issue.
However, Mr Swinney insisted he was “satisfied the Scottish Government has taken the necessary steps to implement the Supreme Court ruling”.
The SNP leader spoke to journalists in Dundee as he unveiled the battle bus that will take him around Scotland campaigning in the run-up to the May 7 election.
Asked about Ms Cherry’s comments, the First Minister said: “An awful lot of this stuff is in the past, and I’m looking to the future.”
Pressed on her decision to leave the party she represented at Westminster, Mr Swinney added: “People make their own decisions about their politics.”
He continued: “So much of what is being talked about here is in the past and I am looking to the future.”
The First Minister also stressed: “I’m satisfied the Scottish Government has taken the necessary steps to implement the Supreme Court ruling.”
That ruling, from April 2025, made clear that the the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
The Scottish Government is still facing a second legal challenge from the group that won that case, For Women Scotland, over the placement of transgender prisoners in women’s jails.
Mr Swinney told the Press Association: “There’s obviously still some parts of that that are still the subject of legal challenge in Scotland that I can’t comment on, it is for the courts to look at.
“But I am satisfied we have taken the steps to implement the Supreme Court ruling, which is in accordance with my view, that I have always asserted, that the Scottish Government must act within the law.”
