SNP slammed for ‘frittering away’ more than £1.5bn of taxpayers’ cash on defending trans ideology

SNP leaders have been slammed for “frittering away” more than £1.5billion out of hard-working Britons’ pockets to battle transgender cases.

Locked in three battles with pro-women’s rights campaigners since 2022, Holyrood ministers have paid out massive bills in unsuccessful bids to nurture transgender ideology.

A wider bill of a shocking £3million was racked up while Scottish politicians dug their heels in against Brexit policies - as well as independence.

But the greatest spending was on their fruitless defence of transgender ideology, The Scottish Sun revealed.

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Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton told The Scottish Sun the ministers' legal challenges amounted to a mere "war of grievance".

She added: "These staggering figures show how the SNP have wasted a shocking amount of taxpayers' money on trying to defend the indefensible."

Meanwhile, Trina Budge, director of For Women Scotland, said: “The SNP Government has frittered away what can only be called an obscene amount of taxpayers’ money in legal cases to defend their policies and actions which have tried to dismantle women’s rights.

“It’s little wonder they have achieved scant progress in vital policy areas when they have spent much of the last five years in court against us.”

For three years, Holyrood officials fought women's rights campaigners For Women Scotland at the cost of £766,498 - the most expensive out of the three.

But in 2025, the landmark case was won with the Supreme Court ruling that the term "women" referred to biological sex, rather than personal identification, in the Equality Act 2010.

The gender critics hailed their win, with the devolved Government kissing goodbye £242,500 to the advocacy group for its legal fees, as well as £150,000 for a previous Court of Session case.

This figure was added to its own legal fees, bringing the total to the eyewatering amount of £766,498 for the legal fight.

The Scottish Government has said that it has accepted the Supreme Court ruling, adding it was "taking forward the detailed work necessary" including updated single-sex spaces.

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The second costly case began in 2023, when Scottish leaders fought the order by the UK Government's Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack, to block its gender self-ID bill.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill sought to facilitate gender transition by allowing citizens to self-ID themselves.

The process would have been more streamlined by lowering the minimum age to 16 and cutting wait time to three months - without even requiring a medical diagnosis.

A court further ruled that Whitehall's objection was lawful, shutting down any chance of real-life implementation, causing the bill to become £370,474 for the devolved body. Some £170,000 was paid to Westminster.

The SNP complained the block was "undemocratic" despite the rule of law always having been a fundamental aspect of Britain's democratic process.

Insider data exposed the high staffing costs, amounting to more than £100,000 each year.

The third, final and ongoing cost bludgeoning the SNP is the controversial case which began in 2023 over trans rapist Isla Bryson.

Adam Graham, who self-identified as Isla, a transgender woman, raped two women in 2016 and 2019, was originally put into a women's prison.

But FWS launched a judicial review of the trans policy blighting Scottish prisons, stirring up another legal fight with the ministers.

Holyrood argued trans women should be locked up in women's jails - arguing that they could be at risk in prisons for biological males.

By last month, the minister forked out £187,957 on the process, with FWS spending close to £200,000. The legal battle is ongoing.

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