Sandie Peggie trans 'debacle' must be 'wake up call for brainwashed public sector' says ALBA Leader

Former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said the landmark discrimination case should be a 'catalyst for change'

A former justice secretary is warning the Sandie Peggie trans “debacle” over changing rooms must be a “wake-up call” for Scotland’s “brainwashed” public sector.

Kenny MacAskill said the landmark discrimination case should be a “catalyst for change”, insisting public services had a “duty” to accept the Supreme Court’s ruling on biology.

He claimed many organisations appeared to be seeking to “delay or thwart the ruling” that allows men identifying as female to be banned from women’s single sex spaces.

MacAskill is also calling for a clear-out of public sector boards claiming chairs and members failed to challenge chief executives and senior management as “harmful” trans ideology became embedded across Scotland.

He said: “The Supreme Court was clear and unequivocal in their judgment.

"The excuses and failures of government and their agencies to respond is simply unacceptable.

"The clearest example remains in the absurdity of men self-identifying as women and being classified as women for crimes that women simply cannot perpetrate and resulting in men being placed in the female prison estate.”

According to MacAskill, public boards “were craven in their acceptance of the ideology” as services were “brainwashed by trans ideology” after bringing in controversial lobbyists such as Stonewall and LGBT Youth Scotland to push their agenda.

MacAskill, justice secretary between 2007 and 2014, claimed the ongoing tribunal showed not just the need to roll back “trans ideology zealots” but to “expand the catchment for such board memberships”.

He said: “The current grouping has failed when they have a duty to challenge as well as to support.

"It’s time that these individuals went and those we appoint in their place possess common sense and know what a woman is.”

Sandie Peggie is taking NHS Fife and trans medic Dr Beth Upton – formerly Theodore– to a tribunal after being suspended following an incident on Christmas Eve 2023 in female changing rooms.

The nurse worked at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy for 30 years before being suspended and asked to work elsewhere after objecting to the presence of a biological male in a female changing facility.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in April that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law meaning trans women – men identifying as female – can be excluded from single sex spaces.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The Scottish government has made it clear that it accepts the Supreme Court ruling and since April has been taking forward the detailed work necessary as a consequence of the ruling.

“In addition Police Scotland has published interim guidance on searching of trans-gender people.”

[This was first published in the Daily Record on Wednesday 30 July 2025]