Nicola Sturgeon admits she 'lost the dressing room' on Isla Bryson
The former first minister called Bryson ‘a biological male’ during an interview with ITV to promote her new memoir
Nicola Sturgeon has admitted she “lost the dressing room” when she refused to say whether double rapist Isla Bryson was a man or a woman.
In an interview with ITV News to mark the publication of her new memoir, the former first minister called Bryson “a biological male” and admitted she should have been “much more straightforward” on the issue.
She said “all sense of rationality” had been lost in the furious gender debate, adding: “I’m partly responsible for that.”
Ms Sturgeon said rapists should “probably” lose their right to choose their own gender. But critics branded her comments “drivel” and said she had failed to apologise.
The passing of the gender recognition reforms, which would have made it easier for trans people to legally change their gender, marked one of the most controversial periods in Ms Sturgeon’s political career.
The legislation passed with cross-party support in December 2022, but was later blocked by the former Conservative government in Westminster.
Not long afterwards Bryson – who was born Adam Graham – was sent to a women’s only jail after being convicted of raping two women, before being transferred to a male prison.
Ms Sturgeon repeatedly refused to say whether Bryson was a man or a woman during this period, instead simply saying: "That individual is a rapist.”
In her new memoir, which is titled Frankly, she admitted: “There haven’t been many times in my career when my communication skills deserted me as utterly as they did in the face of this controversy. Maybe my confidence had been damaged more than I realised by the intensity of the vitriol flung at me. Or maybe I was just losing my touch. Whatever the reason, when confronted with the question ‘Is Isla Bryson a woman?’ I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights.”
Ms Sturgeon wrote that saying yes to the question would “enrage people and inflame the situation”, but saying no “would allow the opponents of the new self-identification law to say that they had been right all along about the impact on women-only spaces - which, in my view, they absolutely hadn’t been”.
She added: “Moreover, it seemed obvious to me - media frenzy aside - that the gender question was not the relevant issue in this context. What mattered was that Isla Bryson was a rapist. Identifying as a woman did not confer any automatic right to be accommodated in a female prison.
“Any convicted trans woman considered a risk to female inmates would be sent to a man’s prison, as in fact Isla Bryson quickly was. This all seemed very rational. The problem was that, in a febrile atmosphere, I was unable to communicate it in a way that cut any ice.
“Because I failed to answer ‘yes’, plain and simple, to the basic question, I seemed weak and evasive. Worst of all, I sounded like I didn’t have the courage to stand behind the logical conclusion of the self-identification system we had just legislated for. In football parlance, I lost the dressing room.”
Speaking to ITV, Ms Sturgeon was asked if she would say now whether Bryson is a man. “Isla Bryson identified as a woman,” the former first minister said. “I think what I would say now is anybody who commits the most heinous male crime against women probably forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice.”
However, she went on to say this latter comment “probably was not the best phrase to use”.
Asked why she did not simply say Bryson is a biological male, Ms Sturgeon said that “they are a biological male” but added the issue “gets back into the self-ID thing”.
The former first minister continued: “I should have been much more straightforward, I wasn’t, but that’s because of the debate. We’d lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I’m partly responsible for that.”
Ms Sturgeon said: “Anything I say about Isla Bryson, in the wider world will immediately be taken and transferred to every trans person.
“And if I sometimes still seem as if I’m struggling with how to define Isla Bryson, it’s not out of any concern for Isla Bryson, it’s out of concern for how that then affects the wider trans community, and that is difficult.”
In the same interview, Ms Sturgeon admitted she did not “engage as much as I should on some of the concerns that might then be triggered” by her gender reforms.
She added: “At the point I knew it was becoming, or felt it becoming, as polarized I should have said, ‘Right, okay, let’s pause, let’s take a step back’.
“I fervently believe that the rights of women and the interests of trans people are not irreconcilable at all. I should have taken a step back and said, ‘How do we achieve this?’”
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon must be delusional if she thinks the women of Scotland will swallow this drivel.
“She arrogantly ignored all warnings that gender self-ID would be a gift to male predators like Isla Bryson. And she ordered her SNP MSPs to vote down my attempts to block rapists and other sex criminals from being able to legally change their gender by self-declaration.
“Her absurd ideological belief in self-ID collapses with her belated mealy-mouthed admission that this rapist is a man, but she still can’t bring herself to say sorry for all the pain and misery she has caused.
“Let’s not forget that if it was not for Alister Jack’s common-sense decision to block Sturgeon’s dangerous law, every rapist in Scotland would be able to declare themselves as women with the full support of the state.”
Ms Sturgeon’s memoir also touches on the t-shirt worn by JK Rowling, which branded the former first minister a “destroyer of women’s rights”.
Ms Sturgeon wrote: “I obviously don’t know what her intentions were, but it seems blindingly obvious that a stunt like that was never going to elevate the debate or illuminate the issues at the heart of it.”
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