FORMER deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has urged SNP women MPs to join with Labour to pass a law to prevent rape complainants being quizzed in court about their sexual history.
Harman said the SNP at Westminster should break the party’s rule of not voting on devolved legal issues and support her proposal when it comes before the Commons.
She issued the plea to SNP MPs to "stand in solidarity with women in Wales and England".
The Labour MP spoke out in an interview with the Sunday Herald ahead of an appearance by her at the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics on Friday.
Harman, who is a former UK Solicitor General, said a change in the law was needed in the wake of the rape acquittal of the footballer Ched Evans.
Evans won his appeal last year in a case that centred on evidence from two other men who testified about the complainant’s sexual preferences and the language she used during sex.
Harman pointed out that while a law change in 1999 had barred such court tactics, it permitted defence lawyers to apply to introduce a complainant’s previous sexual history under certain circumstances.
She pointed out that there was a similar loophole in Scotland.
Harman said: "I've been talking to a number of SNP women and Rape Crisis in Scotland say that there is the same problem in Scotland, so Holyrood needs to change the law too."
She said the SNP's 35 MPs, 12 of whom are women, could be "pivotal" in a Commons vote on the issue now that the Tories no longer have a majority.
Harman said: "I'm appealing to them to make an exception and vote on devolved legal issues and to get male SNP MPs to vote with us on this too."
Harman’s proposal to strike the clauses about exceptions struck out of the law is expected to come before the Commons later this year.
Rape Crisis Scotland Coordinator Sandy Brindley welcomed Harman's intervention.
She said: "The use of this type of evidence is a direct barrier to justice."
In response to Harman, a Scottish Government spokesperson added: “There are long-standing safeguards within Scots law that mean the court must give explicit approval for character and past behaviour evidence to be used in sexual offence cases."
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