Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney have been savaged by members of their own party after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on transgender people. Falkirk East MSP Michelle Thomson broke ranks to demand that serving and former First Ministers should apologise to women who fought "tooth and nail" for the right to single-sex spaces.

Ms Thompson told the BBC transgender people had been "led up the garden path" by those who supported gender self-identification. Her comments came after interim guidance was issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use women's facilities" in areas such as hospitals, shops and restaurants.

Falkirk East's MSP said: "In reality, let's be clear: Keir Starmer should also be apologising, Nicola Sturgeon should also be apologising because people expect government to make clear policies that can be translated into law, and this has been quite a mess for some time, and has only been cleared up as a result of the ruling by the Supreme Court."

She urged Mr Swinney to "exhibit very clear leadership" on the issue and "come out really strongly" to warn the organisations of the legal consequences if they don't abide by the Supreme Court's ruling on single-sex spaces, although she said he had been clear that the law should be followed.

The MSP said: "This is the Supreme Court that has made a ruling. It's not some airy-fairy guidance. It's the highest court across the UK. I think he needs to be very clear that, where it is possible, immediately and now, they must adhere to the law."

Ms Thompson added: "There are some people who have been led up the garden path. I think it's terrible some trans people who have been told that they could operate under the basis of self-ID when the Supreme Court judgment made it so clear that that was not their legal interpretation of the Equality Act."

Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, told the Mail many other SNP MSPs privately share his concerns, but are reluctant to speak out over fear of being deselected.

He said: "Given the fact that the Supreme Court have effectively declared the whole approach of Nicola Sturgeon as contrary to the law then surely an apology should be provided by her. That would display grace and humility."

Mr Ewing went on to identify gender issues as one of the main causes of a loss of trust between the SNP and voters in Scotland.

He added: "We have lost three quarters of our MPs, 15% in the opinion polls and 65,000 members of the party - over half. How much worse would it need to be before Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney had the good grace to admit that they got gender, the Green deal and grand wheezes - now deserted - all seriously wrong?"

"I’ve spoken out because from day one I believed the Green deal and the gender obsession would bring us down. I wish I hadn’t been proven right but I have."

The intervention from the EHRC comes after the UK Supreme Court declared the words "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie warned the guidance could breach the human rights of transgender people and called for it to be withdrawn.

He said: "It's going to cause a great deal of confusion. It already is causing a great deal of anxiety and it will do far more harm than good."

The MSP said the EHRC "appears to be saying "transgender people should be forced to out themselves on an almost daily basis".

Mr Harvie added: "The independence of the judiciary needs to be respected, but it does not forbid people from criticising the arguments that have been made in court, or from disagreeing with a specific decision.

"I strongly disagree with this one and I believe that it is in danger of placing the UK in breach of trans people's human rights, as it was decades ago."