THE Scottish Greens co-leader has come under fire for saying the departure of the prominent land and tenants' rights campaigner Andy Wightman was no loss to the party as people didn't know who he was.
Lorna Slater said today Wightman's resignation came as a "massive shock" but then went on to play down his departure arguing he was little known.
But her comments immediately caused fury with people on social media pointing out that Wightman had a higher public profile than Slater.
One Twitter user said: "As an ex-SGP member who campaigned I can absolutely guarantee that he is the reason many voted SGP on the list last time & if he stands as an independent (which I *really* hope he does) he'll get huge support again. We need land reform in Scotland, we need MSPs like Andy."
Another commented: "Who’s Lorna Slater???"
Wightman resigned from the Scottish Greens in December after clashing with his party over transgender issues.
Land reform campaigner Andy Wightman resigned from the Scottish Greens in December. Photo Getty
In his resignation letter he said: “Some of the language, approaches and postures of the party and its spokespeople have been provocative, alienating and confrontational for many women and men.”
He continued: “It has become evident to me that the sort of open-minded public engagement I would like to see take place on this topic is incompatible with a party that has become very censorious of any deviation from an agreed line”.
The clash was brought to a head by Wightman’s attempts to vote for an amendment to the forensic medical services (victims of sexual offences) (Scotland) bill the previous week, which legislated for the option to request an examiner of a particular sex.
The amendment substituted the word “sex” for “gender”, which supporters argued resolved ambiguity but other MSPs argued was hostile towards trans women, and was passed overwhelmingly.
In his letter, Wightman – who joined the Scottish Greens in 2009 and entered the Holyrood parliament in 2016 – said it was “made clear” to him that if he voted for the amendment and against the group mandate, he would face “complaints and disciplinary action leading to possible suspension, deselection or expulsion”.
Wightman added that he was previously admonished by colleagues following his attendance of a public meeting at Edinburgh University in June 2019, which included speakers critical of proposed reforms to transgender rights.
“It has become evident to me that the sort of open-minded public engagement I would like to see take place on this topic is incompatible with a party that has become very censorious of any deviation from an agreed line.”
Wightman felt there was no clear and agreed process for allowing individual MSPs to deviate from the group position, with no rules for allowing a free vote as are established in other parties.
Describing Wightman’s decision as “a matter of deep disappointment”, a spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said at the time: “Land reform, empowering local democracy and community empowerment are core Green issues, and Andy’s contribution has been very important, but the Greens remain committed to carrying on this agenda without him. The Scottish Greens wish Andy well in whatever he decides to do next.”
But Slater today launched an attack on Wightman and claimed his views may have stemmed from a “kind of male privilege” and the belief he was being silenced.
She also claimed Wightman never engaged with the women’s or LGBT groups within the Greens and that she would feel “very uncomfortable” working alongside MSPs who held different views on transgender rights.
Asked whether he would be a big loss to the Scottish Greens, Slater told the Scotsman: “Andy leaving was a massive disappointment and to be honest a massive shock.
“Andy has very specific followers, but most people have no idea who he is. There’s a bit of a niche following there, but I don’t think it is a general issue.”
The co-leader said she “absolutely did not” recognise the accusation of intolerance in the party, adding that she did not know where that concern originated.
Slater said: "He didn’t even try to talk to us, so yeah, I don’t know where that comes from. He didn’t even try to talk to us about that.
"Does it come from a kind of male privilege where anyone who thinks differently than you is somehow silencing you? I don’t know, I’m a little unclear on that myself.”
The Scottish Green politician said it was “honestly a mystery” as to why Wightman resigned, saying she personally wrote to him asking him to stay and that he never approached the women’s network within the party to discuss the issue.
She said: “It was presented as a done deal and we offered to discuss the matter with him, I myself wrote to him to ask him to stay and talk to us, endless hours of discussion happened between our parliamentary group and our parliamentary staff and he would not be persuaded to continue the discussion with us.
"Andy at no point approached the women's network to ask us why we have the policies we have, over why we feel the way we do over trans rights. At no point did he engage with any of our trans members of the Rainbow Greens.
"So that’s why it came as a shock because if someone really wants to learn about those issues, we have those party bodies and discussing those things is pretty much what we do, that’s why we exist, and I really wish that when we had reached out to him to come and talk to us that he had taken us up on that.”
Slater said she did not have a message to women who had concerns around trans rights due to Wightman’s treatment.
She said most of the concerns were raised by men and that “as a majority” women “don’t have any issue around trans rights”.
The co-leader added: "I’m not sure that spending our time trying to argue with this tiny percentage of people who believe the nonsense and straight-up lies of that these groups are about is a good use of our time when actually what we need to be fighting for is proper healthcare for trans people, for trans people to feel safe and not be the victim of hate crimes.
"We have much more important things that we need to be doing around trans rights and around women’s rights, for example improving women’s representation in politics.
"We have bigger fish to fry than trying to change the minds of some people that have been caught up in some Twitter conspiracy story.”
Wightman was approached by The National for a comment.
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