Ash Regan 'excluded' from Scottish Parliament for Maggie Chapman social media post

Ash Regan faces exclusion from the Scottish Parliament for an X post about Maggie Chapman.

The independent politician made the post in April after the Supreme Court ruled that ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refers to biology, not gender.

Regan told followers on the social media platform that she had reported Chapman to the presiding officer and standards committee for referring to the judgment as a “political attack”.

The message included a letter directed to Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone about Chapman’s comments.

Now Regan faces a two-day exclusion from the Scottish Parliament after standards bosses found she broke conduct rules by sharing the letter.

Giving a statement this morning, Labour MSP Martin Whitfield – convenor of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee – said its recommendation had been a “unanimous” decision.

The matter will now go to a vote in parliament. No date for this has yet been set but it is expected to take place in the new year.

The court ruling followed a landmark case brought by campaigners For Women Scotland against the Scottish Government.

It challenged the inclusion of transgender people in single-sex spaces and services and the court upheld the lawfulness of limiting access based on biology, not preferred gender.

Afterwards, Chapman told a protest in Aberdeen that “bigotry, prejudice and hatred” is “coming from the Supreme Court and from so many other institutions in our society”.

Her comments drew criticism from the Faculty of Advocates and saw MSPs vote on her place as deputy convenor of the parliament's equalities committee. 

On April 22, Regan posted that she had “formally reported Maggie Chapman MSP to the presiding officer and standards committee following her dangerous dismissal of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Equality Act as a ‘political attack’”, adding: “MSPs have a duty to uphold the law, not undermine it.”

But the committee found that the post was a breach of the code of conduct for MSPs, and has recommended her exclusion from the parliament and its committees on two sitting days.

The five-member panel includes Whitfield, Tories Sue Webber and Annie Wells and SNP members Ruth Maguire and Emma Roddick - former party colleagues of Regan, who left the SNP for Alba until electing to end the parliamentary term as an independent. 

The committee found the Edinburgh Eastern MSP had broken rules aimed at ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of the complaints system.

Its ruling follows a report by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland, which was sparked by a complaint from a member of the public.

The MSP code states that members must not “disclose, communicate or discuss any complaint or intention to make a complaint to or with members of the press or other media prior to the lodging of the complaint”.

Regan told the committee that “not only did she not make a complaint but that she had no intention to make a complaint” and that the closing paragraph of her letter seeks “advice rather than action”.

But the committee said an “objective reading” of her post, letter and subsequent correspondence with parliament officials added up to the disclosure of an intention to make a complaint.

A source close to Regan called the decision “absurd”, saying: “Any rational member of the public would think that Ms Chapman would be the one being censured, not Ash Regan for raising concerns regarding the impact Maggie Chapman’s conduct had on a landmark decision which protects the right of women and girls to single-sex spaces. The handling of this matter and the natural injustice will only serve to undermine trust in our parliament.

“The committee's view [is] that MSPs do not have an unqualified right to the same freedom of expression that members of the public hold, a decision that is at odds with the legal advice of the former Dean of the Faculty and years of precedent. Yet again we are seeing someone that stands up for the rights of women and girls punished for the actions of those that would roll back on their hard won rights.”