Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry also demanded that the former Scottish first minister say sorry.

Ms Cherry said: “I’m a long-term feminist. I’m a lesbian who came out in the 1980s and campaigned against Section 28.

“I’ve had to put up with my own party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, calling me a bigot and a transphobe for sticking up for the rights of women and lesbians.

“I think she owes all of us, not just me, and more importantly the women of Scotland, an apology.”

Last year, Ms Sturgeon admitted the trans row contributed to her shock resignation as Scottish first minister in 2023.

Speaking in May 2024, she told the Charleston Literary Festival in Sussex: “I think in politics you reach a point where you know in yourself that you don’t have as much to give any more.

“I also thought that politics in Scotland, like politics everywhere right now, is pretty polarised."

She added that the country also has the divisive “independence issue” in the mix.

Ms Sturgeon said she had “got to the point where I thought I was part of that problem” because there is no one in Scotland who “doesn’t have an opinion about me whether good or bad – and I’m not sure many people are indifferent”.

She added: “It felt as if every issue people were coming at that issue in terms of how they thought about me – that felt true on the trans issue, it felt true on a number of issues – so I thought, well, if I take myself out of that maybe the politics, the discourse and the debate in Scotland will be a bit more healthy.

“It hasn’t quite worked out that way, but yes, that is why I decided to stand down.”