John Swinney was accused of giving a 'nonsensical' response (Image: Getty)

       John Swinney has come under fire after being challenged over the definition of a woman.

       The new Scottish First Minister initially said a woman is an "adult female born as a woman" before adding that he accepts "transgender women are defined as women".

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       Mr Swinney went on to insist his government would “do nothing that threatens the safety of women and girls” during an interview with BBC Radio Scotland.

       But the SNP leader's response has been criticised by women's campaigners and Conservative politicians.

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       Campaign group For Women Scotland blasted his position, saying: "This is just silly!”

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       Scottish Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton said: "And so it continues….with a confusing response from John Swinney, who correctly says a woman is born female, but fails to acknowledge that a transwoman is born male and whose gender identity is female.

       "Biological sex and gender are not the same."

       Scottish Conservative deputy leader Meghan Gallacher added: "John Swinney on BBC Radio Scotland this morning stating that he would not do anything that would threaten the safety of women and girls. He already has.

       "He voted for GRR and sat on his hands as a backbencher when the Cass Review was published."

       Chris McEleny, the general secretary of the Alba Party, said: "John Swinney has decided to stand in the middle of the road when it comes to answering what is a woman.

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       "He says a woman is an adult female born as a woman but also that transgender women are women.

       "Seemingly, according to John, transgender women that are male are female."

       Referring to Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carrol, policy researcher Lucy Hunter Blackburn wrote on X: "I see the Scottish Government is still behaving as if they think they can handle questions round the relevance of sex in language, policy and law as if this was just a word game scripted by Lewis Carroll. That stage is well past.

       “One, I wasn’t 'born a woman', I was born a girl. Two, how does he define transgender women? Who does he believe is admitted to that category?

       “Three, defined as by whom? And how does he define them? Four, and most of all, why does he think a, literally, nonsensical formula is an answer?”

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