Exclusive:Anas Sarwar denies gender U-turn motivated by shifting public opinion

It comes after the Scottish Labour leader said he would have opposed the controversial Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill “knowing what we know now”.

He and his deputy, Jackie Baillie, have also expressed support for Sandie Peggie, a Fife nurse who objected to a trans doctor using a female changing room.

Labour MSPs were whipped to support the GRR Bill when it passed through Holyrood in 2022. The legislation would have allowed someone to self-identify their legally recognised sex, but was later blocked by the UK Government.

Mr Sarwar, whose party meets for its annual conference in Glasgow this weekend, was asked about his U-turn during an interview on The Steamie, The Scotsman’s politics podcast.

Put to him that it was a cynical move to align with public opinion, he said: "No, and I think it's important to take two separate issues - one, what's happening in NHS Fife and secondly around the conversation we’re having around the GRR Bill.”

He said the Scottish Government and NHS Fife should be focused on how they clear hospital backlogs, fix the NHS and support staff.

"What they shouldn't be fixated on is how they take nurses into disciplinary procedures because of a changing room,” he said. “That demonstrates that they've got their eye off the ball and they're not focused on the big issues confronting our country, and we're going to fix that, because my number one priority is going to be to fix the NHS and to make sure people are getting the treatment they need.”

Mr Sarwar said health boards and the Scottish Government "should be following the law", adding: "The Equality Act is clear and the law is clear - there should be a protection of single-sex spaces based on biological sex, of course also of NHS services."

He said Labour maintained its support for single-sex spaces based on biological sex throughout the GRR Bill process.

"The real tragedy of the entire GRR Bill debate is this: no trans person feels any more protected since the GRR Bill debate, and women don't feel any more reassured since the GRR debate, and that's a fundamental failure of government to one, have the right priorities, but also go about this in the right way,” he said.

Asked if he accepted that the debate in Holyrood played a role in creating confusion and mess around this issue, and whether he took some responsibility for that, he said: "I'm not in government, but I want to be in government. I didn't lead the charge in the parliament, another party led the charge in parliament.

"I didn't put that legislation through parliament, it was another party that put that legislation through parliament.

"It's another party that is issuing the guidance. It's another party that is responsible for how our government operates, how our public sector operates, how our public bodies operate.

"And I think it's that Government that has to be held responsible for the fact that it has allowed the organisational capture, it has allowed the wrong direction and it has not focused on the right priorities."