Trans rights and the constitutional ‘nuclear option’

Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill has pitted Holyrood against Westminster – and raised a wider schism between London and the devolved nations, writes Mary Dejevsky

The current dispute between Westminster and Scotland about transgender rights is a product of our constitutional mismatch (PA Archive)

Who knows what was in Nicola Sturgeon’s mind when she railroaded through the Scottish Parliament a bill allowing 16-year-olds to change their gender before the law. Maybe she decided after a period of sincere deliberation. Maybe it reflected a long-standing belief, or – just possibly – it was the result of successful lobbying by an influential and vocal constituency.

Or, of course, she could have seized on the hugely controversial issue of trans rights as a way of at once demonstrating her own progressive credentials and an opportunity to pick a new quarrel with Westminster. If so, she has been spectacularly successful – and not for the first time.

Over the years, she has shown a more acute sense of politics –the big picture and small –than almost anyone in political office in the UK today. Whether or not the innocently named Gender Recognition Reform Bill was a deliberate provocation, Scotland’s first minister must be gratified by the frenzy she has once again stirred up in London. Opposing Westminster is a time-honoured way for the Scottish National Party to win points with its supporters, and it did not take long for the UK government, in the shape of the Scottish secretary, to announce that it was blocking the law.