Scotsman Daily Bulletin Tuesday 25 July
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00:00 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin
00:02 for Tuesday, the 25th of July.
00:05 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman
00:07 and I'm joined by our Westminster correspondent,
00:10 Alexander Brown.
00:11 Good morning, Alex.
00:12 - Good morning.
00:13 - Alex, we're here to talk about your story, in fact,
00:17 that we led with on the front of the Scotsman today.
00:21 It's about gender and it feels like a few months
00:24 since we've been at the position of talking about this
00:26 as a policy, but it wasn't coming out
00:28 of the Scottish government this time.
00:30 It was UK Labour's position on this
00:32 that has caused some issues.
00:35 Alex, can you talk us through it?
00:37 - Yeah, so it's a classic Westminster Labour
00:41 and Scottish Labour being at loggerheads over an issue
00:44 and one doing something that spites the other, really.
00:48 It began with Anneliese Dodds, the Labour Party's
00:51 Women and Equalities Shadow Secretary,
00:53 writing an article in The Guardian
00:55 where she essentially said the party would reform
00:58 the Gender Recognition Act.
00:59 She said it was outdated, but at the same time,
01:04 she said that that would not include
01:05 the demedicalization transitioning.
01:07 So if someone wants to change their gender and have their ID
01:12 they will still have to go through the medical process.
01:14 And she also said that there would remain some spaces
01:18 that would remain single safe sex spaces
01:21 so that trans people could not go into them.
01:24 This has caused a huge problem for Scottish Labour
01:28 who many, many of their MSPs have supported demedicalization
01:33 and have already criticized what she said in this article.
01:38 It's also a problem because she criticized
01:40 the SNP's gender recognition reform proposal
01:43 which was blocked by the UK government,
01:45 something that was overwhelmingly backed by Scottish Labour.
01:49 So it's now a huge issue with Scottish Labour saying
01:52 our position remains the same while Westminster,
01:55 they're saying something very different.
01:57 - Alex, what's going on here?
01:59 UK Labour and Scottish Labour just not talking
02:03 because it was very clear that this was gonna create issues
02:06 for Anas Sarwar and his party.
02:08 - It was quite interesting because Scottish Labour,
02:11 when they're briefing, not on the record,
02:13 but when they're briefing,
02:14 are usually quite keen to stress
02:15 just how they've never been so involved
02:17 in what's happening in Westminster
02:18 and how Sir Keir Starmer's door is open
02:21 and they've got a lot more to say
02:22 and they're having an active involvement in the manifesto.
02:25 But this is not an isolated incident.
02:28 We're in a situation now where the Westminster party
02:31 needs to look strong and not make financial commitments
02:34 'cause of where we are financially
02:36 and is trying not to get done
02:38 for unfunded spending commitments
02:40 so the Tories can criticize them.
02:43 While at the same time, you have the Scottish Labour Party
02:46 who want to attack the SNP by saying
02:48 they're not going far enough,
02:50 we would invest in this, we would do that.
02:52 So they're stuck between a rock and a hard place,
02:55 Scottish Labour, really,
02:55 because they're trying to outflank the SNP
02:59 while their own party down the road
03:01 are trying to do exactly the opposite.
03:04 It's a right mess and it's just fantastic campaign material
03:08 for Hunter Newsath.
03:10 - Just want to circle back to the two-child benefit cap,
03:14 which was the recent policy, if we want to call it,
03:17 a U-turn that's created problems for Scottish Labour.
03:20 It seemed like Anasarwar tried to come out
03:22 and stick with the party policy.
03:24 We had an exclusive interview where he said
03:27 for the Scotsman that he flagged
03:30 they didn't want to go down the route
03:31 of causing a economic stir like was trusted
03:35 with the UK budget by committing to something financially
03:38 that they didn't know whether they could deliver.
03:40 He then changed within 24 hours and said,
03:43 no, Scottish Labour do still support getting rid of the cap.
03:47 It just seemed a bit of a mess.
03:49 So are they going to sort this out
03:51 between now and the general election
03:53 because it feels like it's becoming a problem,
03:55 particularly up here.
03:56 - I mean, it seems like we're just,
03:58 we're heading towards a fudge, right?
03:59 Scottish Labour has repeatedly said,
04:01 whether it's the two-child benefit,
04:03 whether it is the demobilisation,
04:07 that it has different policies
04:09 to the Westminster Labour Party.
04:12 There isn't really a clear way forward from this
04:15 because anything the Westminster Labour Party announces,
04:17 it's just going to cause a problem.
04:19 I mean, we saw it in Moray,
04:20 essentially coming out and say
04:21 the shadow Scotland secretary essentially saying,
04:23 I also, you know, I support the two-child benefit cap,
04:26 but I would want to scrap it.
04:29 And so I'm hoping the party can come up with a way
04:32 to find those savings elsewhere,
04:36 which, you know, is essentially saying
04:38 we're going to try to do something,
04:40 but we might not be able to do it.
04:43 That's it.
04:43 It's expectation management from the Scottish Labour Party
04:46 because for all of their own, you know,
04:47 their independence to coin a phrase,
04:50 they are still subject to the whims
04:52 of what's happening with Sakeha Starmer.
04:54 - Thanks, Alex.
04:56 You can read that full report at scotsman.com.
05:00 It's up prominently on the homepage,
05:02 but you can also find it via the politics tab
05:04 in the navigation bar.
05:06 You can read all the latest from Alex from Westminster
05:08 via the politics tab as well.
05:11 Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
05:14 Go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.
05:16 Support local journalism.
05:17 There's plenty in there,
05:18 including main hits around transport.
05:22 A fascinating story from Alistair Dalton
05:24 coming on Wednesday.
05:25 Thanks very much.
05:26 (silence)
05:28 (silence)
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