Anas Sarwar said he is not in favour of gender recognition being moved to Westminster under a Conservative "power grab".

The Scottish Labour leader was on a visit to the Govan Pantry food bank with his party's candidate for Glasgow south west Dr Zubir Ahmed at the Pearce Institute in Govan, Glasgow today when he was asked about an announcement by Rishi Sunak over the Equality Law.

Mr Sunak has pledged to change the Equality Act to define the protected characteristic of sex as “biological sex”. 

Under the new scheme the Conservatives will also establish in law that gender recognition is a reserved matter, with women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch saying, “it is impracticable for gender recognition regimes to vary in different parts of the country”.

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The Gender Recognition Bill was passed in the Scottish Parliament in 2022 and would have made it easier for transgender people in Scotland to get gender recognition certificates.

The Bill was prevented from proceeding to royal assent by an order under Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, made by the secretary of state for Scotland, Alister Jack.

In December, the Court of Session ruled the action was lawful, despite a Scottish Government challenge with the bill now in limbo.

Speaking to reporters today Mr Sarwar said he would not support the move to make gender recognition a reserved matter.

READ MORE: Tories to amend Equality Act to make ‘biological sex’ protected

"It's typical of this Conservative party, one to fight the culture war and second to fight a constitutional fight on what is a really important and serious issue," he said.

"It's another one of those dead cat kind of strategies...but I think people will see through it. The Equality Act protects biological sex and I recognise people want more reassurance and protection that is fine.

"We would issue appropriate guidance on single sex spaces based on biological sex and the easiest way of doing that is by electing a Labour government to issue that guidance rather than [having] this culture war and a pretence that we have to go through a long legislative process."

Asked if Holyrood should retain gender recognition legislation responsibilities, he said: "I believe in the primacy of the Equality Act that has always been the case. It was introduced by the Labour party. It has given much needed protections to communities across the country.

"We recognise that through the process of the GRR bill. The SNP promised us as part of that process there would be no negative interaction with the Equality Act, that's proven not to be the case in the court ruling.

"Therefore I think there is an approach that doesn't require a culture war, that doesn't require a constitutional fight but can be resolved by two governments working together to deliver protections for people across the country, that means protecting the Equality Act, recognising the primacy of the Equality Act and ensuring we protect single sex spaces based on biological sex while also removing the indignities in the process of obtaining a GRC which impacts on the trans community."

Pressed on whether Labour would support the Conservatives plan to make gender recognition reserved, he said: "No. This has worked since devolution, it has worked for 25 years. We accept there have been issues over the past few years and concerns expressed but we believe in the primacy of the Equality Act.

"We believe the Equality Act does protect biological sex and we believe by issuing guidance we can give further reassurances and clarifications.

"But this does not require a constitutional fight. It doesn't require any kind of powers being grabbed."

The Conservatives claim their proposed change to the Equality Act will make it simpler for service providers for women and girls, such as those running sessions for domestic abuse victims, to prevent biological males from taking part.

They say that Labour’s Equality Act has not kept pace with evolving interpretations and is not sufficiently clear on when it means sex and when it means gender.

The sex of those with a Gender Recognition Certificate will still align with their acquired gender in law outside the Equality Act, for example marriage law, as is the status quo.