The SNP’s Joanna Cherry has demanded a “long overdue apology” to critics of the Scottish Government’s controversial Gender reforms.

Her call comes as ministers are set to abandon their legal action over the UK Government's veto of the legislation.

The SNP-Green administration had until December 29 to appeal the Court of Session’s ruling that Scottish Secretary Alister Jack's use of Section 35 of the Scotland Act had been lawful.

However, as first revealed by The Herald, in an update to MSPs today, they will confirm that no further action will be taken.

READ MORE: Scottish Government to drop legal action over Section 35

Taking to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Ms Cherry, who has long been a critic of the legislation, said she was pleased that the Scottish Government wouldn’t push ahead with an appeal.

“It’s the right decision in the round,” she tweeted. “All that remains now is for a long overdue apology from MSPs from all parties who rubbished the legitimate concerns of lifelong feminists & #LGB activists.”

The MP for Edinburgh South West said the “biggest lesson” to take from episode was that “Holyrood needs to up its game on bill scrutiny & evidence based policy making.”

“Sometimes rights conflict & safeguarding really matters,” she added.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland, Ms Robison was asked if she thought an apology was necessary.

“I don’t believe so,” she said.

“I think I listened to all of the arguments through taking forward the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

“It was clearly a polarising debate.

“Fundamentally, at the heart of it, it was trying to make the lives of trans people just that little bit better.

“But we are where we are.”

Ms Robison said the Government would find other ways to improve the lives of transgender people.

Out for Independence, the SNP’s LGBT wing, said they were “saddened and disappointed to see that the Scottish Government will not continue to fight the UK Government's unjust use of a Section 35 order to block the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.”

“GRR was supported by 2/3 of MSPs and had votes from all parties. It would have fulfilled our obligations to support the basic human right of trans people to accessible legal gender recognition and placed us among our peer countries such as Ireland, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark,” they tweeted.

MSPs passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill (GRR) in December last year by 86 votes to 39 on a cross-party basis.

The legislation was supposed to speed up and simplify the process for a trans person to obtain a gender recognition certificate and change their legal sex.

Under the current system, this takes at least two years, involves a medical diagnosis and is only available at 18.

Holyrood’s Bill would have cut the waiting time to six months, scrapped the need for medical diagnosis and lowered the age threshold to 16.

However, before it could become law, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack blocked it by using the first-ever order under Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act.

He argued that although the subject matter was within Holyrood’s powers, the Bill would have an adverse effect on the operation of UK-wide equality law.

READ MORE: Section 35 Scotland Act: What is it and why is Alister Jack using it?

Running for the SNP leadership in the spring, Humza Yousaf said he would challenge the veto as a matter of principle if he won and later launched a judicial review.

His top law officer, the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, argued at the Court of Session in September that Mr Jack’s decision had been unlawful, irrational and motivated by a “policy disagreement” with Edinburgh rather than legal concerns.

In her ruling, delivered earlier this month, Lady Haldane rejected the Scottish Government’s arguments and said there was nothing to lead her to conclude that Mr Jack had acted unreasonably or unlawfully.

She also said Section 35 was an “intrinsic part” of devolution, not a perversion of it.

The decision to drop the case could cause problems for the Bute House Agreement.

Back in April, shortly after Mr Yousaf became First Minister, Green MSP Maggie Chapman said he party would have walked away from Scottish Government partnership deal had the SNP failed challenge Mr Jack’s use of the Section 35.

“It was very, very clear that this was a key principle for us as part of the Bute House agreement, and I’m very pleased that Humza Yousaf has taken the decision to challenge this in court,” she said at the time.