Anas Sarwar’s Scottish Labour have heard the mood music from Team Starmer and rowed back on their support for the SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, despite having claimed it was “right” to vote for it just six months ago. Now, the party have decided it’s “deeply flawed”… 

According to The Times, Sarwar no longer supports the idea of self-ID – which allows anyone over 16 to change their gender without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria – and although Scottish Labour still supports it “in principle”, the SNP’s refusal to accept Labour’s amendments to safeguard women’s spaces is now a problem. Six months ago they said the same thing, yet backed it anyway. “Principles” don’t get you very far in politics…

Yesterday Sarwar offered this word salad when asked if he’d vote for the Bill again:

“I’ve been reflective about this since the passage of the GRR Bill and I’ve said it feels like everybody has lost. I don’t think our trans community feel any more protected since the passing of the GRR Bill […] I don’t think women feel any more reassured since the passing of the GRR Bill, but I still continue to believe that it’s right for us to want to remove the indignities and the humanities in the process of obtaining a [gender certificate].

“We still have work to do to make sure that we are protecting single-sex spaces based on biological sex [and] I think the government should reflect that they didn’t go far enough and accepting amendments…”

Starmer saw the winds blowing in a different direction many weeks ago, now Sarwar is playing catch-up…