PM urged to not ‘treat trans people as political football’ by Scottish Conservative Jamie Green
Good morning. It it quite a busy day at Westminster, and there is a lot of news definitely coming: the results of strike ballots that will decide if teaching strikes go ahead, a meeting that could pave the way for the intenstification of Northern Ireland protocol talks with the EU, and the debate on the government’s anti-strikes bill.
But there is also a lot of interest this morning in news that might come today, or maybe later this week. George Parker in the Financial Times, firming up a story reported by the Times last week, says Rishi Sunak “is set to use a constitutional ‘nuclear option’ for the first time by blocking legislation passed by the Scottish parliament that seeks to make it easier for people north of the border to legally change their gender”. Parker says:
One senior government figure said: “There isn’t much disagreement that legally we have to act.” A decision could be taken as soon as Monday and Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, is said to be fully supportive of the intervention.
I fear the UK government’s rumoured moves to block the Scottish gender recognition reform bill will set us back years. This move could be a gift to proponents of independence who may accuse us of tearing up the devolution settlement.
It could be a gift to Labour, as we show to LGBT+ people, their friends and their families, that we are happy to leave the centre ground for others as we fail to live up to our promise to govern with compassion …
Continue reading…PM urged to not ‘treat trans people as political football’ by Scottish Conservative Jamie GreenGood morning. It it quite a busy day at Westminster, and there is a lot of news definitely coming: the results of strike ballots that will decide if teaching strikes go ahead, a meeting that could pave the way for the intenstification of Northern Ireland protocol talks with the EU, and the debate on the government’s anti-strikes bill.But there is also a lot of interest this morning in news that might come today, or maybe later this week. George Parker in the Financial Times, firming up a story reported by the Times last week, says Rishi Sunak “is set to use a constitutional ‘nuclear option’ for the first time by blocking legislation passed by the Scottish parliament that seeks to make it easier for people north of the border to legally change their gender”. Parker says:One senior government figure said: “There isn’t much disagreement that legally we have to act.” A decision could be taken as soon as Monday and Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, is said to be fully supportive of the intervention.I fear the UK government’s rumoured moves to block the Scottish gender recognition reform bill will set us back years. This move could be a gift to proponents of independence who may accuse us of tearing up the devolution settlement.It could be a gift to Labour, as we show to LGBT+ people, their friends and their families, that we are happy to leave the centre ground for others as we fail to live up to our promise to govern with compassion … Continue reading…