Scotland Secretary Alister Jack’s decision to block a law which would have allowed people to self identify in Scotland was a “democratic outrage”, the SNP’s former Westminster leader has said.
First Minister Humza Yousaf has been reported to be poised to announce plans this week for court action against the UK Government after it blocked the law aimed at making it easier for people to change their legal gender.
READ MORE: Scottish Government taken to employment tribunal in trans row
Ian Blackford, the former leader of the SNP in Westminster, told BBC Radio Scotland the bill had backing across the Scottish Parliament.
He told the Good Morning Scotland programme: “What’s at the heart of this matter is the Secretary of State for Scotland believes he has the power, he has the right, to strike down any bill of the Scottish Parliament. That’s a democratic outrage in a modern democracy.”
🔔 Get unlimited access to The Herald with our Digital Pack and save over 20% annually. Offer ends today!
👉 Click here to sign up for this offer
He said that members of the Scottish Parliament could be sent to Holyrood “by the electorate to enact a manifesto commitment and at a whim, at a stroke of a pen, the Secretary of State for Scotland can strike down any bill of the Scottish Parliament” and said he thought “it quite clearly cannot be right”.
READ MORE: Why Catholic nuns are making a stand for transgender rights
Asked if he thought if the Scottish Government would win, he replied: “Let’s wait and see.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel