A new Scottish Tory MP has been accused of erasing women after he took credit for blocking the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

Writing in the Telegraph, John Cooper said it was he and former Scottish Secretary Alister Jack who “took on the SNP’s flagship gender laws with facts and evidence.”

However, a former senior UK Government official told The Herald it was Kemi Badenoch and grassroots women campaigners in Scotland who built the “cast iron case” for the first-ever order under Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act.

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Mr Cooper, a former special adviser to Mr Jack, who won the Dumfries and Galloway constituency at the election, made the claim as he outlined his support for Robert Jenrick in the Tory party leadership contest.

Ms Badenoch — who he did not mention in the article — is one of Mr Jenrick's rivals in the race to replace Rishi Sunak.

MSPs passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill (GRR) at the end of 2022 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.

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

After it was passed Mr Jack used Section 35, ultimately stopping the Bill from gaining Royal Assent.

In his statement to the Commons explaining his reasons, he said both he and Ms Badenoch believed the legislation would have a “serious adverse impact” on, among other things, the operation of UK-wide equality law.

In his column, Mr Cooper said his party needed to “put forward a compelling case” to inspire the “millions of Scots” who “share ‘small c’ conservative values and principles.”

“That means being mindful of not just what we say, but how we say it.

"When we have done so, Conservatives have consistently won the argument.

“When Alister Jack and I took on the SNP’s flagship gender laws with facts and evidence, Nicola Sturgeon resigned shortly after, and the SNP government later suffered a crushing defeat in the courts.”

Speaking to The Herald, Nikki da Costa, a former equalities policy fellow in the government, said it was wrong to suggest the unprecedented decision to use the little-known veto was taken solely by the two men.

“It was an unfortunate choice of words, given the critical work of Kemi Badenoch, as the women and equalities minister, and also the women campaigners who painstakingly assembled the evidence and facts and refused to pipe down.

“They were ignored by the SNP, but they persisted and we took them seriously.

“Use of Section 35 depended on a cast iron case and a formidable effort behind the scenes to challenge the default assumption that the Government could not intervene, and we must honour the courage and contribution of all those involved.“

In the book, Women Won’t Wheesht, published at the start of the year, a source close to Ms Badenoch, said it was grassroots campaigning in Scotland that “laid the ground”.

“Seeing how fiercely ordinary women were fighting to be heard putting everything on the line - made such a difference. Their work challenged in detail what the Scottish Government was saying and led to intense media coverage.

“It helped change things in Whitehall - made people more receptive to the questions Kemi was asking.

“Had officials really understood the ramifications of what was proposed, and were we doing enough? Were we truly upholding our role as envisaged in the Scotland Act if we sat back?

“Fundamentally this wouldn't have happened without women's campaigning. They changed the politics.”

Mr Cooper has been approached for comment.