"The Parliament of Scotland considered this very carefully. The hon. Member for Moray talked about the letter that pointed out potential problems with the Bill, but has it occurred to him that in the year-almost-between that letter arriving and the amendments being tabled, every conceivable situation was looked at and taken into account in the legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament? I asked the Secretary of State whether he could point out the section of the Bill that undermines my rights as a woman, my daughter's rights as a woman or the rights of all the women I know and the children I know. He did not do so, but we have been directed to this flimsy, weak apology of a statement of reasons as the supposed justification for the section 35 order. To say it is weak is to flatter it.
"Those of us on the Opposition Benches and some who support the Government have looked at this Bill in great detail. Our colleagues in the Scottish Parliament pored over it with a fine-toothed comb and considered 150 amendments. The Bill says that it will always guarantee the primacy of the Equality Act.
"The Parliament of Scotland-the elected representatives of the people of Scotland-has made a considered decision on behalf of a very vulnerable section of our society. In doing so, it has made progress towards a society where those people feel respected, honoured and treasured in a way that, perhaps, they did not before. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament for having done that for my fellow Scots.
"I am disappointed that the United Kingdom Government have taken this completely inappropriate opportunity to stage a constitutional confrontation with the Scottish Parliament-and they should be sure that it is with the Scottish Parliament, not the Scottish Government. I ask that they carefully reconsider the damage that they are about to do to the Unionist cause in Scotland if they do not respect the wishes of the Scottish Parliament."