Màiri McAllan: I regret the way we handled gender reform

Housing secretary Màiri McAllan has said the SNP could have handled gender reform better, admitting the issue is “no further forward”.

McAllan said she accepted the outcome of April’s Supreme Court ruling that for the purposes of the Equality Act, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ refer to biological woman and biological sex.

But in a wide-ranging interview with Holyrood, she said it was important to “get on” with balancing the rights of women and trans people.

McAllan, who was given the housing brief in a Cabinet reshuffle after returning from maternity leave in June, also said she would consider running for the leadership of the SNP in the future, but gave her firm backing to John Swinney.

Asked if she regretted the way the gender recognition reforms had been handled, she said: “Yes, I think so. I do think so, because we’re no further forward.”

“I know what it feels like to be a woman. I have known the pain of menstruation. I have known the embarrassment of men’s advances, unwanted advances at times. I’ve known what it’s like to give birth.

“I know what it is to be a woman, but I also accept that there are people who may have been born physically as men but who feel, chemically, that that’s not who they are, and I see that as part of the rich diversity of human life.”

McAllan said she accepted the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling and was “very clear” about the importance of the law.

She added: “I think that trans people, trans women, are in many ways distinct from women, but ought to be celebrated for who they are. And we should find ways of making sure that the rights of everyone can be upheld.

“And that’s something we’re very accustomed to. Human rights law in its entirety is about balancing rights. So, we just need to try and do that and get on with it.”

Despite her reservations about the way reform had been handled, she said former first minister Nicola Sturgeon had made the country a “better place”.

Asked about whether she might one day consider putting herself forward as leader of the party, she said: “I never worked with Alex [Salmond], but I have worked extremely closely with Nicola, and I’m very close with John [Swinney], and I therefore have a unique insight into how difficult the job is.

“I think that [Swinney] is the best person to lead the party. I think he’s the best person to lead the government, and I think that he could lead us to independence.”

She added: “I don’t seek that kind of power if that’s the right word for the leadership position. I don’t seek it, but that sense of duty is always with me and if I ever felt that it was the right thing to do, I would consider it. But for the time [being], for this period, and into the next, I believe it will be John. I believe it should be John.”