Scottish Labour has pledged to implement the Equality Act “straight away” as the party unveiled its Women’s Manifesto. Leader Anas Sarwar, alongside Labour candidate Carol Mochan, spoke with women in the Cumnock constituency, emphasising a commitment to uphold the recent UK Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.
Key Pledges in the Women’s Manifesto
The manifesto’s central promise is to implement changes to the Equality Act following the Supreme Court’s April 2025 ruling. The court determined that the definition of a woman in equalities law is based on biological sex, meaning “sex” refers to biological sex and is binary—an individual is either male or female. This alters the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a “woman” to a biological female.
Mr Sarwar stated: “First of all, the clearest example of the difference is we will stop using taxpayers’ money to challenge women and people, and we’ll get on straight away with implementing the Equality Act and making sure we’re protecting single sex spaces based on biological sex. Services, spaces and schools.”
Single-Sex Spaces and Prison Reforms
The manifesto commits to delivering single-sex spaces based on biological sex, including “recommitting” the NHS to provide single-sex wards. It also pledges to “remove all biologically male” prisoners from women’s prisons within days of the election. This policy aims to address concerns about the safety and rights of female inmates.
Abortion Rights and Healthcare
Although the manifesto did not explicitly mention abortion rights, Mr Sarwar assured that the party would “absolutely protect” them. He said: “We will absolutely protect abortion rights. There’ll be no changes to abortion rights in the next Parliament. But where we do need to make change is the access to skills, access to homes, and also access to support sex spaces based on biological sex, and that is what we need immediately if we elect a Scottish Labour government.”
Additional healthcare pledges include tackling long waits for women’s procedures, establishing menopause clinics in every health board, “protecting women’s reproductive rights,” and increasing the number of health visitors.
The SNP has been approached for comment.
