Scottish Labour Manifesto - Commits to Single Sex spaces

[fromorbit]

While Bridget Philipson seems confused about the Supreme Court judgement Scottish Labour seem to have very different ideas. Anas Sarwar at the manifesto launch was very clear:

Scottish Labour Women's Declaration
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9h
Thank you to the journalist who asked Anas Sarwar about single-sex spaces and the EHRC guidelines.

Watch here:
https://nitter.net/treesey/status/2043669310594248802

The manifesto has triggered a massive meltdown from TAs. Women's rights are likely to be a bigger part of the campaign with Scottish Labour, Conservatives, Reform all in agreement that women exist while SNP, Greens and Lib Dems are unsure. Don't forget to raise it with any candidates if you can.

Some extracts from the manifesto when they say women they clearly mean women.

PROTECTING WOMEN’S HEALTH
Women’s health has long been overlooked and too
frequently women are ignored or dismissed when they
raise their concerns. It is time for this to change and for
women’s health to be given the priority it deserves. To
improve health care for women, Scottish Labour will:

• Deliver safe maternity services in every part of the
country, with a national plan to drive improvements where
services have fallen short and ensure that women can
access quality maternity care no matter where they live.
• Guarantee support for new families, training and
recruiting the health visitors needed to provide home
visits between pre-birth and a child turning five.
• Reverse the decision to downgrade Wishaw
neonatal unit, pausing the plans to centralise
specialist neonatal units across Scotland, and
commissioning a new review of services.
• Recommit the NHS to delivering single sex wards
on the basis of biological sex, and ensuring patients
can request same sex provision wherever possible.
• Tackle long waits for gynaecological procedures,
improving speed of access to colposcopies, laparoscopies
and hysterectomies, and diagnosing endometriosis faster.
• Provide menopause clinics in every health
board region, so women can access the support,
advice and medical interventions they need.
• Protect women’s reproductive rights, ensuring
that they are able to access the full range of
reproductive services, no matter where they live. [p16]

STANDING UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Delivering single-sex spaces on the basis of biological
sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life
by upholding the Equality Act and delivering clear
instructions to public services on how to comply with
their legal obligations to women and to trans people. [p52]

Scrapping the sentencing guidelines for
under-25s, so sentences are fair and no one
escapes justice because of their age.

Preventing bail for those with histories of violence
to women, to protect victims of domestic abuse [p55]

Keeping women’s prisons for women, instructing the
Scottish Prison Service to remove all biologically male
prisoners from women’s prisons within days of the election. [p 58]

TACKLING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Rising crime and reoffending needs a robust response. Keeping people safe is the Government’s first responsibility. That’s why there’ll be no soft touch or sticking plasters with Scottish Labour.
Linda Dorward, former prison governor

Domestic abuse is still prolific in our society, with men
overwhelmingly the perpetrators. Misogynistic attitudes
and violence are also on the rise, often fuelled by online
discourse that is targeted at young men. Scottish Labour is
determined to protect women and girls in Scotland by:

• Establishing a Misogyny Reduction Unit, based within
Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit and treating violence
against women and girls as an issue of public health
with research and evidence-based interventions..
• Closing legal loopholes around sexual deepfakes,
ensuring the law criminalises the non-consensual
creation of images, as well as the sharing of them.
• Preventing bail for those with histories of violence to
women, tightening bail laws so those with a history
of domestic abuse and violence cannot be bailed
to their current or previous partner’s address.
• Boosting uptake of the Equally Safe Programme
in schools, with a graded participation award so
that young people and parents can see the work
that schools are doing to counter the impact of
online misogyny and abusive behaviour.
• Continue funding for Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid,
ensuring resources are delivered to local services
which support victims around the country.

[p60]

https://scottishlabour.org.uk/manifesto-2026/

I'm going to risk trusting Labour on what they've said and vote for them in May. Unfortunately the SNP will probably win.

Bloody hell. I wasn’t expecting anything like that from Labour anywhere in the UK any time soon.

Wow, quite the turn around. Can they be trusted to mean it though? Do the people in Scotland, who care about this, have much choice about trusting them? I wish one of the party's in Wales would declare something this positive, right now I have nobody to vote for in May.

The comments on the Nitter link are not that positive about this new direction.

Well, that's very interesting and could certainly help me out with my list vote if they really mean it.

The manifesto is part of a shift which has been going on for a while. Jackie Ballie, Deputy leader has been repeatedly vocal on women's rights in recent times. The Scottish Labour Women's conference has been positive for years. Scottish Labour did fail in gender debates in the past, but the shift now seems genuine enough.

Example back in February
https://www.channel4.com/news/scottish-labour-vows-to-ban-transgender-women-from-female-prisons-in-scotland

The reality is the situation looks bleak otherwise. Scottish Greens are worse than ever and are looking to gain more seats. The SNP also are promising to keep men in women's prisons.

A deeper danger is the TAs within Labour will take a Scottish Labour defeat to signal Labour needs to be more like Polanski and continue to push undermining women's rights. Any gain Scottish Labour makes is useful. If you don't trust them vote for the right or Independent or spoil your ballot the key thing is to keep pushing.

So yes 100% we don't forget that Labour failed before, but don't forget the Tories also betrayed women as well. This is not a left right issue this is sexist crap that all sides believed in.

The point is to push ALL parties and hold all of them to account. If the SNP win overwhelming AGAIN they will think that biology is meaningless and will try to subvert it only this time way more quietly with the Greens forcing them along.

So the thing is to keep raising the issues, praise Scottish Labour for realising they screwed up, and keep attacking SNP, Greens and Lib Dems relentlessly.

Women are real, gay people exist, experimenting on kids is bad, letting male criminals in dresses get special treatment is wrong.

This sounds like excellent news. Not Scotland but if I were this would definitely get my attention and very likely my vote. And I would not be backward in explaining why.

Because things have been such a mess for so long (and continue to be so) I presume there will now be interviews with Scottish male midwives who quite reasonably point out that they were recruited to a job where they would now face constraints. I hope there are plenty of people to point out that many women will have a choice that has been taken away (illegally) if this manifesto is implemented and be sensitive to the fact that it's gender ideology that has made an ass of so many in the health services (and continues to do so).

The TRAs are.going absolutely mad.

I had a response from my local Labour candidate that was even more detailed and firm on the subject. I was taken aback. He confirmed Labour would run prisons on strict 'gender segregation ... according to biological sex'.

So, the promises are there.

The only problem remaining is that we've seen what Labour did in Westminster.- which.is to say, lie through their back teeth to get in.

That guidance out yet? Still men in women's.prisons.

Deeds, not words, Labour.

Two points:

Policy is often tested out in Scottish sphere first.

Scottish Labour are not a separate party from Labour

Overall, this is a positive.sign, though. At very least it shows Labour are aware of how the electorate feel.

He says he'll implement the guidance and he'll go to the EHRC to get a copy of it if he has to, well what's stopping him from doing that now, so he has it ready if they get in.

As said above Deeds Not Words Labour.

I'm so hoping that Scotland can lead the way on this. Presumably Westminster Labour will be all over the results of the Scottish elections, interrogating them for any signs of potential electoral advantage across the UK. So votes for Scottish Labour will be a way of leveraging change both in Scotland and in other parts of the UK.

I think on the basis of what their manifesto claims, I'd take a punt on voting for Labour if I were in Scotland, just when I was beginning to give up hope of ever voting for the UK party ever again.

Quite

Its on their website so that claim does sound a little hollow…

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equality-act-2010/codes-practice/code-practice-services-public-functions-and-associations

Thanks for sharing. I was swithering between voting Labour and spoiling my ballot but I will probably vote Labour now. Yes, it's a risk to trust them but I think it's important to demonstrate that this is something that matters to the electorate.

Its almost like Labour are campaigning against themselves, here.

If Labour are now determined to implement the SC judgment then they should go ahead and do it.

It wont win them a majority though but it may be enough to push them into second...we'll see. The polls don't look favourable though.

Good. I had a conversation on the doorstep with the Labour candidate (James Dalgleish - have namechanged for this post) and was quite impressed by him. We did talk mostly about women's rights and I didn't get the impression he'd thought about them much before that conversation, but he seemed to effectively suppress the kneejerk urge to call his potential voter a bigot, and at one point said in surprise "that's really quite thoughtful" lol. He said he would go away and think about what I'd said and I hope he did. I was hoping I could vote for him and I think given that manifesto I will.

Regardless of Scotparl outcome, the response should be informative feedback for Labour.

i was going to spoil my ballot but this may swing me to Labour. I’m not impressed with the waffle I got from the Labour candidate when I asked her about it though.

Interesting. I had crossed Labour off my potential 2nd ballot options, but maybe they're in the running agin. (First ballot choice will be Ash Regan).

From the manifesto:
Work to deliver a conversion practices ban on a four nation basis to prevent the creation of any possible loopholes across the UK and protect LGBT+ people from harmful conversion practices.

They are still pledging to ban ‘conversion practices’ for ‘T+’ which is extremely contentious and a bit of a red flag imo.

I strongly advise writing to individual candidates on this matter.

Not only do views vary - ranging from strongly trans activist within Labour to strongly gender critical - but it will help to press home the point that this matter is seen as urgent and important.

I was surprised to get a swift and clear response, tbh, and that in itself is heartening.

Email, make appointments, engage at hustings, chat to doorsteppers.

I agree that's a tricky one. Perhaps a first step would be to get a more sensible definition of what 'conversion practices' covers or (more importantly) doesn't cover.

This is a turn-up for the books.

They must have read the room and realised what the general public in Scotland is thinking.
I wish Labour in England was so clear. At the moment I'm politically homeless, largely over this issue, and local elections are coming up very soon.

This bit's interesting too!

Tightening the rules around government legal
action, with new public interest tests in the
Ministerial Code so that taxpayers do not pick
up the bill for political damage limitation.