Guido’s just caught up with the debate on reforming the Gender Recognition Act in Westminster Hall yesterday, which saw SNP MP Mhairi Black conflate the prevelance of gingers with that of intersex people. Clashing over the issue, Tory MP Miriam Cates – who has a Cambridge degree in genetics – claimed human beings cannot change sex. Black intervened:

“People often think that we have male and female, but the truth is that 1-2% of the global population is born intersex, which means they present characteristics of both sexes. To put that into perspective, 1-2% of the population are ginger – so is she telling me she doesn’t believe in ginger people”

Oddly, Cates didn’t really dismiss the point. Looking into the figures, 6% of Scots self-identify as ginger. The figure for intersex people in Scotland doesn’t seem to be available, however the 1-2% figure cited by Black has been widely criticised and can be revised to around 0.018%. Not quite the mic drop moment Mhairi was hoping for…