ON Friday, I was proud to meet with a group of remarkable women in a well-known pub in Cambuslang.

The ladies were representing For Women Scotland and the Scottish Feminist Network who were keen to question candidates – including myself – who are standing in the upcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election about their views on protecting single-sex spaces for women and girls and on women’s rights in general.

What struck me most on my visit was that I was the only candidate from any major political party to give my full support and commitment to standing up for women’s rights and being able to accurately describe what a woman is, an adult human female.

As many Glasgow Times readers will know both SNP and Green politicians have tied themselves in knots over this issue.

Who could forget Nicola Sturgeon’s infamous interview and First Minister’s Questions against Douglas Ross, where she couldn’t say if rapist Isla Bryson was a man or not.

However, one party seem to have lost touch with reality and their working-class roots more even compared to ideological SNP and Green politicians who have refused to listen to women and girls on this.

That’s Scottish Labour. I grew up in a community that was Labour to its core. They should have been my natural party but instead, as I continued to get more and more involved in politics, they have sold out their values and are no longer in tune with ordinary people.

Questions around their stance on self-ID or single-sex spaces are just the beginning.

People can agree or disagree with me and my party on a number of issues but at least the public know where we stand.

More and more often, we are seeing Scottish and UK Labour willing to U-turn on issues to try and make their lives easier.

When the SNP’s flawed Gender Reform Bill was going through Holyrood, Labour’s Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar MSP, didn’t just back it, he actively whipped his MSPs to support it.

He stood side by side with Nicola Sturgeon and Patrick Harvie to push through a reckless bill that failed to protect single-sex spaces.

Yet now after women spoke up against him, Mr Sarwar has flip-flopped, saying he doesn’t back the bill and he wouldn’t have supported it.

The anger I and many women and girls in particular are feeling is justified. It is the height of political opportunism and hypocrisy. Due to his actions, he enabled this bill to potentially become law. Indeed, if it wasn’t for Scottish secretary Alister Jack, it would have been enacted and women across Scotland would have paid the price.

I took a huge beating a few weeks ago when I clarified my views on this issue. I want to say again that I fully support equality for everyone and I am absolutely supportive of reforming the Gender Recognition Act.

Today’s Labour Party simply cannot be trusted to stand up for the real priorities facing people in Glasgow and across Scotland.

In the city, they U-turned a whopping four times on the Low Emission Zone. Firstly, they wanted it, then they wanted it quicker, before finally lining up beside my party and calling for a delay.

On bin collection cuts, they joined the SNP-Green administration in voting for them, before attacking them in the council elections last year. And on women’s rights they sold women out, to only now say they had doubts. What a shambles.

The signs have been there for years, stretching back to when Labour were incredibly weak in standing up for our United Kingdom. Jeremy Corbyn has effectively admitted he would have granted another divisive referendum if he had got the keys to Downing Street and their former Scottish leader, Kezia Dugdale, said she can now see herself voting for the break-up of our Union.

No wonder many Unionists, particularly those in working-class communities, no longer trust them to stand up to the SNP, despite all of Labour’s spin.

I am thoroughly enjoying getting out on the campaign trail in Rutherglen and Hamilton West and elsewhere in Scotland, and it is increasingly clear that the Scottish Conservatives are the only party focused on their real priorities.