Alba Party’s Ash Regan calls on Starmer and Swinney to implement Cass Review

Alba MSP Ash Regan has today called on clarity of language from political parties on women’s rights to single-sex spaces, services, specific jobs and care. 

Regan, who resigned from the government over the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill in 2022, says that it’s vital that Keir Starmer and John Swinney implement the Cass Review and do not roll back on sex-based Equality Act protection in a misguided attempt to “be kind”. 

She commented - 

“If legislators are to protect anyone, we must ensure that we have precise definitions in our laws and language that are consistently applied in all policy and guidance that flows from them. Tongue-tied politicians stumbling over “what is a woman” or “how many genders are there” has created a dangerous state of confusion in public life and the basic understanding of the law and personal rights.

"Women and girls should not have to resort to expensive, exhausting legal action to have their safety, privacy and dignity protections upheld. An illiterate political attempt at enforced ‘inclusion’ has only led to confusion, self-exclusion, litigation and public pushback. If the goal is a cohesive society of balanced rights and protections, we must return to evidence-based policy and leave damaging lobby-driven ideology to the history books."