Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that her Government will seek a judicial review to appeal the UK Government’s decision to veto Scotland’s gender reforms, warning “it will inevitably end up in court”.

Yesterday, the UK Government confirmed it was using a section 35 order of the Scotland Act to stop the gender recognition reforms becoming law.

The reforms will remove the need for trans people to require a gender dysphoria diagnosis to obtain a gender recognition certificate and lowers the minimum age to 16.

Speaking to the BBC, the First Minister labelled the move “a profound mistake”, adding that it was “a direct attack on the institution of the Scottish Parliament”.

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Ms Sturgeon said: “It will be characterised as a spat between the UK Government and the Scottish Government, it is much more significant than that.

“Obviously, the subject matter of this legislation is important, it affects our vulnerable stigmatised group. But actually, the significance is much wider.

“This is a piece of legislation that was consulted on twice, scrutinised probably more than any other piece of legislation in the whole lifetime of the Scottish Parliament, passed by a two thirds majority of MSPs, including MSPs from all parties in the parliament.

“There doesn't appear to be any question about this bill not being within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament.

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“If there was such a question, the UK Government would have referred it to the Supreme Court under Section 33 of the Scotland Act, which they've done before.

“Instead, they're using a provision never used in a quarter of a century to effectively block, veto a decision of the Scottish Parliament within an area of its competence on a whim.

“It is an attack on the institution. And if it is allowed to happen on this, then I think that is a very slippery slope of the UK government deciding to veto decisions of the Scottish Parliament anytime you like.”

Ms Sturgeon acknowledged that the row “will inevitably end up in court”.

She added: “It doesn't automatically go to the Supreme Court as another part of the Scotland Act would have resulted in, so this is something the Scottish Government will have to judicially review.

“Now, obviously, we will see what reasons the UK Government managed to set out in the order they present before the House of Commons. But I can say categorically, the Scottish Government will vigorously defend this legislation.

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“But in doing so we will be vigorously defending something else. And that is the institution of the Scottish Parliament, the ability of MSPs, democratically elected, to legislate in areas of our competence. In short, we'll be defending Scottish democracy.”

Ms Sturgeon warned that “no good faith” has been used by the UK Government.

She added: “If there had been these concerns, and I still don't understand the basis for these concerns about the interaction with the Equality Act, would have been raised at a much, much earlier stage through some of the formal processes that are in existence.

“This is a UK Government that is increasingly hostile to the Scottish Parliament. And this is not the first attack on the Scottish Parliament we've seen, it is the more serious to date.”