Alba Party lodge No Confidence Motion in Green Minister

ALBA Party Holyrood leader Ash Regan MSP has this morning lodged a motion of no confidence in Green Minister Patrick Harvie.

If the motion is backed by 25 other members of the Scottish Parliament then it will lead to a vote on whether MSPs have confidence in the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights.

Ms Regan says that there should be a vote of no confidence in Mr Harvie “for siding with ideology over evidence after NHS clinicians paused puberty blockers at Sandyford, in line with the Cass review.”

Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Green co-leader, has refused on several occasions to accept the recommendations of the Cass review into gender identity services for children.

Jenni Minto, the public health minister, will address MSPs on the Cass report later today in an attempt by the Scottish Government to get control of row over the government’s response to the report by making a Ministerial statement to Holyrood.

Dr Hilary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said in her report on services in England that gender medicine was “built on shaky foundations”.

Her findings are set to inform the future for transgender care in the rest of the UK but Scottish ministers have not yet made a commitment to implementing its findings, much to the anger of many MSPs, campaign groups and members of the public.

Green Minister Harvie said at the weekend that there were “far too many criticisms” of the Cass report for him to accept it as a “valid scientific document”.

He said that serious evidence had not been considered and was “specifically excluded” from Dr Cass’ review.

In an interview on Monday with the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, the Green Party Co-Convener was asked five times if he accepted the findings of the report. He declined to answer, instead saying that the report “has been politicised and weaponised by those who are trying to attack and undermine transgender people’s very existence in our society”.

He also said he disagreed with the decision by the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow, backed by Scotland’s chief medical officer, to stop prescribing puberty blockers to children.

Commenting on her motion of no confidence in Green Minister Patrick Harvie, Alba Party Holyrood leader Ash Regan MSP said:

“The motion of no confidence speaks for itself. The Scottish Greens wish to side with ideology over clinical evidence. I am hopeful that MSPs will put Scotland’s children first, ahead of party lines, and support the motion.”