Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to include meaningful reform of gender recognition legislation in her party’s spring manifesto, after she made her strongest statement yet in support of transgender rights. Scotland’s first minister posted what she described as an unplanned and unscripted statement on Twitter late on Wednesday evening in response to reports of significant numbers of mainly younger people leaving the SNP because of the leadership’s perceived failure to tackle transphobia. Sturgeon said: “It grieves me deeply that you have reached this conclusion because you consider at this stage the SNP not to be a safe, tolerant or welcoming place for trans people. That is not acceptable to me.” Insisting that transphobia should be treated with the same “zero tolerance” that applies to racism or homophobia, Sturgeon added: “Yes we have differences of opinion on gender recognition reform, we should debate them openly and respectfully but no debate can be a cover for transphobia.”