Alex Salmond says gender row could threaten independence

Alex Salmond has claimed that Nicola Sturgeon risks damaging the independence movement over her gender reforms.

The former first minister warned his successor against making the issue a "constitutional battleground" between Scotland and Westminster.

Doing so would create a "hill to die on" for Ms Sturgeon, he predicted.

Ms Sturgeon has been under pressure following controversy over transgender rapist Isla Bryson.

Bryson - who was known as Adam Graham when the crimes were committed - was initially taken to Cornton Vale women's prison after conviction, but later moved to HMP Edinburgh amid an outcry.

The Scottish government's gender recognition reforms would, in effect, allow people to self-identify as a different sex, which critics argue could make it easier for predatory men to access women's spaces.

They have been blocked by Westminster over their potential impact on equalities laws, with the Scottish government saying it will challenge the move in court.

Ms Sturgeon has insisted the reforms are about "the rights of a minority in our society who already struggle with stigma and discrimination", and has accused some of her critics of being driven by transphobia, homophobia, misogyny and racism.

Mr Salmond served as SNP first minister during the 2014 independence referendum but is now the leader of the Alba Party.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, he described Ms Sturgeon as being "one of the ablest communicators in politics".

But he said she had been "reduced to incoherence" over the gender reforms, with the idea of allowing people to self-identify their legal sex "dissolving to dust when it clashes with reality".

He added: "If you pass that and you enforce that it does two things. It leaves itself open to bad actors, people of bad faith, like Isla Bryson.

"And secondly, of course, it makes it impossible to enforce the equalities protection of single sex spaces for women.

"You must not make this the constitutional battleground between Scotland and Westminster - if the SNP does that and Nicola Sturgeon continues in that then it will be a hill to die on".

Mr Salmond also said he stood by every word of comments he made at an Alba Party Burns Supper at the weekend, when he described Ms Sturgeon's focus on gender reform as "daft ideology" and "self-indulgent nonsense".

A YouGov poll published in the Sunday Times at the weekend suggested that support for independence had fallen from 53% to 47% since December, with the popularity of the SNP and the first minister herself also apparently slipping.

A separate poll by Ipsos-Mori released on Tuesday also suggested the first minister's popularity has fallen, with 50% of those asked saying the UK government was right to block the gender reforms and 33% saying it should not have done so.

However, polls consistently indicate that the SNP continues to enjoy a large lead over its rivals.

Mr Salmond warned that if the gender reform issue was allowed to "run and run" by Ms Sturgeon challenging Westminster's veto of the legislation in the courts then "of course it will damage the independence movement".

He urged Ms Sturgeon to seek a resolution with the UK government or to accept the "sensible amendments" put forward by some SNP MSPs before the reforms were passed by Holyrood that would have "rung the sting out of the argument".

He said a confrontation with Westminster should instead be over "issues where the Scottish people are absolutely behind their parliament and their government", such as fuel prices, EU membership or "Scotland's right to self-determination".

'The person'

Ms Sturgeon has consistently refused to say whether she regards Bryson - who only started transitioning from a man to a woman after appearing in court charged with two rapes - as being male or female.

When she faced further questions from journalists over the case on Monday, the first minister briefly referred to Bryson as "her" before quickly returning to using "the person" and "the individual".

Ms Sturgeon said: "She regards herself as a woman. I regard the individual as a rapist.

"What matters is the individual was convicted of rape, and that is what we're talking about here, and that is what I will continue to focus on."

The first minister has previously suggested that Bryson was "almost certainly" faking being trans.

Some senior SNP politicians - including Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville and MP Alyn Smith - have suggested that critics of the gender reforms within the party should consider leaving.

Ms Sturgeon has appeared to distance herself from their comments, saying that parties should always be willing to deal with policy differences as a matter of "internal party democracy".

A review of the handling of the Bryson case and the lessons that can be learned from it has been carried out by the prison service but not yet been made public.

There is also a wider review within the prison service about how transgender prisoners are dealt with more generally.