Scottish Labour leadership candidate Joe Fagan has said his party was wrong to back the SNP Government's gender self-ID law for trans people. Fagan said Anas Sarwar's position damaged Labour with voters and he also made clear he believes trans rapist Isla Bryson is a man.
Fagan criticises Sarwar's approach
In an interview with the Record, the 38 year old said he would have a strong focus on winning back working class Scots after five Holyrood election defeats. Fagan, who was elected to Holyrood for the first time in May, is vying with fellow MSPs Michael Marra and Monica Lennon to succeed Sarwar, who quit as leader last month for the House of Lords.
At a campaign launch in Glasgow, he criticised the former leader by claiming he put tactics ahead of “real outcomes” for working people. Speaking to this newspaper, he put further distance between himself and Sarwar by hitting out at his approach to gender reform legislation in 2022. Sarwar whipped his MSPs to back the controversial Bill, which would have made it easier for someone to change gender, and sacked the rebels who defied him.
Gender reform stance
The plans were blocked by the UK Government and later court rulings stressed the primacy of biological sex. Fagan said Labour should not have backed the Bill: “My advice to people at the time was, when amendments that were put forward by members of the Labour group were not supported, I think we should have abstained from the legislation.”
“I'll be honest, I don't think the Scottish parliament did its job well enough and I think that's one of the reasons that the debate around the issue became so toxic.” On whether this stance damaged Labour in the eyes of voters, he replied: “I think for some voters it has and we've got to rebuild, but I just want to get away from [this] polarising and toxic debate.”
In 2023, there was an outcry after rapist Isla Bryson, a biological woman who claimed to be a man, was temporarily housed in segregation in a female prison. Asked if Bryson is a man or a woman, Fagan said: “A man.” However, Fagan stressed there has to be a place for “compassion and understanding” in the debate on trans and women's rights.
He said: “For people out there who are marginalised and also for people out there who are vulnerable or have an experience of trauma, then this isn't just a question of parliamentary tactics. It's a question of something that's fundamental to the essence of who they are and how they feel about the world.”
Election defeat analysis
May's Holyrood election defeat was Labour's fifth defeat in a row to the SNP. Fagan pointed to three factors behind the latest humbling: “One of them was this enormous collapse and support for the new Labour government at that time. And I think that's overwhelmingly the reason why we lost Scotland, but it's not the only reason.”
“I think we fought the wrong kind of campaign and I think we should have had a more provocative and obvious policy offer. And then there is this wider issue that we have been struggling with as a party in Scotland, which is basically coming to terms with devolution, particularly after the 2011 landslide [when the SNP won a majority].”
He added: “What concerns me is that in an election where the battleground had shifted to public services, the NHS, the cost of living, we still lost. Those were Labour issues.” Fagan said of Scottish Labour's failure to connect with voters: “I don't think we've ever really understood and captured the politics of people and place and and I don't think we've ever really challenged the failings in the Scottish parliament.”
“Politics is really challenging for centre-left parties right across Europe. It doesn't mean that the centre left project, or a democratic socialist project, is over. It can't be. Those values still matter. There are people out there who still believe in those things.”
“They just don't see Scottish Labour as the vehicle to achieve them. That's what I want to change and I think we change that by being far more assertive about whose interest we are here to serve.” He pinpointed “progressive” working class voters as central to a Scottish Labour revival: “They're the people that hold the key to Scotland's future and they're the people that the next leader of the Scottish Labour Party has to be laser focussed on representing.”
“When politics becomes about something that is closer to people's communities, something that is rooted in the politics of people and place, then actually centre-left parties can rebuild. And it's just happened.” “That kind of politics has just propelled a new prime minister into Downing Street who's now rebuilding the Labour party.”
Deputy leader's role
One issue in his in-tray if he wins is the role of deputy leader Jackie Baillie. Senior party figures believe Baillie should also quit as they claim she has too much power and must be held to account for May's defeat. Fagan said: “The deputy leader has her own mandate and this contest is about who is going to lead the Scottish Labour Party. So I'll let Jackie make her own decisions and I'm going to lead the Scottish Labour Party.”
He added: “I'm going to be Jackie Baillie's boss.”
