Nicola Sturgeon’s approval rating plunges in wake of trans row

Nicola Sturgeon has been told to “eat some humble pie” and abandon her gender reforms after support for the Scottish National Party (SNP) plummeted as she recorded her worst-ever approval rating.

A new poll, carried out in the wake of the scandal over transgender rapist Isla Bryson being placed in a female jail, suggests that the nationalists are haemorrhaging support due to Ms Sturgeon’s controversial positions on transgender rights.

Her personal approval rating has fallen to minus four, YouGov research found, the lowest recorded since she took over from Alex Salmond in 2014.

Meanwhile, support for both independence and the SNP in Holyrood elections dropped by six points in a month.

Amid an increasingly bitter SNP civil war over gender, one of Ms Sturgeon’s senior ministers has suggested that parliamentarians who oppose the First Minister’s stance on transgender rights should consider quitting the party.

However, Joanna Cherry, lawyer and SNP MP, called on Ms Sturgeon to back down over an issue that SNP insiders fear has left the party looking extreme and out of touch.

“It’s time to admit that feminist criticisms of self-ID and the [Gender Recognition Reform Bill] were right, eat some humble pie and sort this mess out before it does any more damage to the reputation of our party, parliament and the cause of Scotland’s independence,” Ms Cherry tweeted.

Ms Sturgeon has previously said she will go to court in a bid to overturn a UK Government veto on her plans to allow Scots to easily change their legal sex by signing a declaration.

However, her claims that the system would pose no risk to the safety of women or single-sex spaces have been undermined by the case of Bryson, who was initially placed in a female jail under a policy that follows the same principles as the proposed self-identification law.

Joan McAlpine, one of Ms Sturgeon’s former MSPs, lambasted her decision to go to war with the UK Government over gender self-ID and accused her of damaging both her party and the independence cause.

“Not since Bonnie Prince Charlie sacrificed his Highlanders at Culloden has a Scottish battleground been so ill-chosen,” Ms McAlpine said. “It’s not so much dying on a hill, as succumbing in a quagmire.

“This ideology is a personal passion of the First Minister so she must answer for any harm done – to women, obviously, but also to her party and the cause of independence it was founded to champion.”

The YouGov poll, carried out for The Sunday Times, found that Ms Sturgeon’s approval rating had fallen to minus four, down from plus seven in October. It is her first negative approval rating recorded since June 2018, when she was on minus two.

Meanwhile, support for independence was down to 47 per cent, from 53 per cent a month ago.

Backing for the SNP Holyrood elections was down six points to 44 per cent for constituency votes, and down four to 36 per cent on the regional list, the lowest in five years.

For Westminster elections, the party polled 42 per cent, the lowest recorded since 2019.

Jim Sillars, former SNP deputy leader, accused Ms Sturgeon of making allies of “zealots” while ignoring biology and public opinion.

Alex Bell, a former SNP policy advisor, claimed Ms Sturgeon had “made Holyrood look stupid” and that her u-turns following the Bryson case amounted to the “betrayal of Scotland by its First Minister”.

Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly refused to say whether Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham, is male or female but claimed last week the rapist was probably faking being trans as part of a bid to gain access to women’s spaces.

SNP ministers claimed repeatedly that predatory men would not change legal sex to access women’s spaces and Ms Sturgeon previously dismissed feminist concerns as “not valid”.

Under Ms Sturgeon’s planned system, Scots would be able to easily change their legal sex by signing a declaration.

Existing safeguards, such as the need to obtain a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and live in an “acquired gender” for two years, would be watered down or scrapped entirely.

Bryson was moved to a men’s jail following a public backlash. A temporary pause on male-bodied trans prisoners with a history of violence against women being moved to female jails was put in place after it emerged that Tiffany Scott, a notorious inmate previously known as Andrew Burns, was also set to be moved to a female jail.

Keith Brown, Scottish Justice Secretary, is due to update Holyrood this week on the results of an urgent review into why the rapist was initially sent to the women’s prison.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scottish Education Secretary, called on SNP politicians to back party policy. Those who did not should “question” whether to stand as SNP candidates at the next election, she claimed.

“If you’re standing as an SNP candidate at an election on a manifesto, you should stand on that manifesto and you should follow that through,” she said. “At the next election, you can then decide if you wish to be an SNP candidate.”