The SNP has been accused of “working hand in glove” with radical trans activists after five of its MPs backed a parliamentary motion seeking to block new guidance on protecting single-sex spaces, in a move that has reignited Scotland’s long-running row over gender and women’s rights.
More than 130 MPs have signed Early Day Motion 240, tabled by Labour backbencher Nadia Whittome, calling for Parliament to “disapprove” the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s updated Code of Practice on single-sex services. Among the signatories are five SNP MPs — Kirsty Blackman, Chris Law, Pete Wishart, Graham Leadbitter and Seamus Logan.
The EHRC’s code was laid before Parliament on 21 May, more than a year after the Supreme Court’s landmark April 2025 ruling that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological womanhood and biological sex. The updated guidance confirms that a service must be restricted on the basis of biological sex in order to be classed as single-sex under the Act — meaning facilities such as toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards and refuges across Scotland, England and Wales must be used according to a person’s birth sex rather than their gender identity. Under parliamentary procedure, the code will automatically come into force unless either House passes a resolution rejecting it within 40 days of being laid.
Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher condemned the SNP MPs’ involvement. “SNP MPs, who are pocketing a lavish taxpayer-funded salary, should be ashamed of working hand in glove with this extreme trans organisation to undermine women’s rights,” she said. “John Swinney should condemn his SNP colleagues for backing this disgraceful and wildly out-of-touch motion.” Swinney has previously said he accepts the Supreme Court judgment, though this has not stopped the five Nationalist MPs from putting their names to the motion.
Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East and a member of the Women and Equalities Committee, said the draft code would have serious consequences for transgender people. “The Code will exclude trans people from services and facilities that they have long used without issue, putting them at increased risk of harassment and violence, and effectively pushing them out of public life,” she said, adding that it represented “a profound rollback of rights.” According to Personnel Today, the motion has been signed by 116 MPs and has drawn support from Labour, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, including signatures from nearly 50 Labour backbenchers — representing a significant rebellion against guidance laid before Parliament by Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson.
Scottish Trans, part of the taxpayer-funded Equality Network charity — which has received £3.9 million in public money over the past decade — has been actively campaigning for constituents to lobby their MPs to oppose the guidance. Vic Valentine, manager of Scottish Trans, said: “If services across Britain were run the way this code describes, it would turn the clock back on trans people’s equality by decades.”
Women’s rights campaigners have pushed back firmly. Susan Smith of For Women Scotland said John Swinney had “pledged to protect women-only spaces from any and all males” but added: “Perhaps he has no control over rogue MPs who are set on breaking these promises.” The EHRC’s updated guidance has been broadly welcomed by women’s rights groups, who have long argued that shared facilities involving undressing, toileting or other situations of vulnerability should be provided on a single-sex basis for reasons of privacy, dignity and safety.
The SNP was approached for comment.
