Why I am standing for SNP National Equalities Convener

The world is changing, and so must we as a party with it.

In a few days, internal elections will take place within the SNP at our 87th National Conference and you will be asked to vote for the party’s office bearers for the next year. After a great deal of careful consideration and discussion with party colleagues across the country, I have decided to stand for the role of Equalities Convener.

The role of Equalities Convener is a challenging one. It requires someone with pragmatism, the ability to listen and reflect on what is being said, but also to act. I believe that I can be that person, having served previously on SOAC (now Conferences committee) and at the affiliate, branch, and constituency association in several roles for over a decade.

I look back on the party that I joined back in 2007 and can see it is now a much more vibrant, and diverse party than the one I first joined. In many ways we have flourished. For example, we have more women in roles of leadership within the party than ever before. We have also embraced the new groups within the party such as the SNP Disabled Members Group and SNP BAME, who have done so much to bring the needs and hopes of their members to the forefront of our policymaking and open opportunities for underrepresented members.

However, despite all these many positives I would be remiss if I did not address the current situation within our party regarding transphobia. It risks our party’s reputation and the years of work that many, many people within the party have done to facilitate an inclusive and welcoming environment.

Firstly, I believe it is naïve to believe the SNP and its membership are immune from the past five years of intense political disinformation worldwide. This includes the far right weaponizing transphobia and other tactics being used to undermine democratic and progressive movements around the world. There is now a sense of SNP exceptionalism, that I would argue poses an existential threat to both our party and the wider independence movement if we fail to act.

Secondly, I believe the party has been complacent in how it addresses complaints from members regarding instances involving discrimination where there is a protected characteristic – not only regarding transphobia, but also anti-Semitism, sexism, and racism. Over the past few years, there have now been several highly public incidents involving elected members that show us in a poor light. We have been seen as reluctant to act, eroding membership’s faith in our party as well as undermining our efforts to be an inclusive party of government.

I’ve heard some in the party express dismay when the party or its members have focused on giving more prominence to underrepresented groups or focusing on equalities as they feel it is a distraction from independence; or that the focus on issues such as trans rights, LGBT+ equality or party mechanisms that facilitate more representation from women, BAME and disabled members somehow means that independence is taking a backseat.

To those who feel this way, I would sincerely ask the following. How do you expect to achieve independence by closing the door on the very people who will be vital to creating the fairer independent nation as a party we hope to build? How can you justify inaction on equality issues and continuing the injustices that saw many previously shut out from politics? How do you expect others to follow you in the future when in the present, you consider them getting a seat at the table to be a distraction?

Independence is a means to an end in the fight for social justice and ultimately it is the only way for Scotland to become the fairer, more equal country we know it can be. In the meantime, we must continue to build the foundations of that future independent Scotland.

We can only move forward to independence as an inclusive, welcoming, and socially progressive movement. There are times when we need to pause and reflect and sincerely consider if we are on the right track and that rhetoric matches reality.

We must be mindful that the UK Government is growing increasingly hostile to minorities and human rights, as clearly demonstrated by the Nationality and Borders Bill which has provisions to strip citizenship on the whim of UK Ministers. After Windrush, we can predict that this will be used against some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They need the SNP to raise their lived experiences and voices to leadership roles within the party, to combat increasingly rampant xenophobia we now see daily.

We are living in dark and frightening times. We can only have hope of achieving an independent Scotland by moving together as one, with understanding and equality at the heart of what we do. We cannot risk regressively turning the clock back.

I hope you will consider voting for Kirsteen Fraser for National Equalities Convener in the coming days.

If elected I will:

• Support an independent investigation into transphobia within the SNP.
• Work with party colleagues to overhaul the party complaints system to ensure it is robust, transparent and deals effectively with issues such as bullying and harassment, in particular, cases with a discriminatory element.
• Research and develop protocols that safeguard the fairness of the candidate assessment process and selection processes to protect against both conscious and unconscious bias, in partnership with the National Equalities forum and party colleagues.
• Investigate the viability of mandatory induction and training for key committees that handle conduct issues.
• Ensuring the complaints system is accessible to all members, as well including a mechanism that would encourage independent investigation where potentially the party or members of its committees have a conflict of interest or lack competence to deal with a sensitive case.
• Support the existing work of developing political education materials that challenge disinformation within the party – particularly on issues of equality legislation.
• Investigate the development of a diversity and inclusion framework to identify structural barriers that impact our most vulnerable members participation within the party. This would include equality impact assessments on major changes within the party and its governance.
• Work with colleagues to ensure that future party and conference events are fully accessible, as well as maintain a remote-hybrid format to promote inclusion from members.
• Research and develop an SNP Equalities statement to better inform how the party will demonstrate and uphold respect, fairness and understanding in party operations.
• Identify areas of development with colleagues in the National Equalities Forum to build on training opportunities and skills development for underrepresented members.
• As a mass membership party, utilise the size of our party to encourage wide engagement with awareness and training on key issues such as gender-based violence.
• Work with party colleagues to research and develop a neurodiversity policy to support neurodivergent members in becoming active in the party and widening understanding of neurodiversity.