Asked by her lawyer Naomi Cunningham why she had felt the need to speak to the MP, Neale Hanvey, about the matter, Peggie replied: “I didn’t feel comfortable that Stuart had taken it as serious complaint.
“I thought he thought I’d been disciplined because I’d done something wrong.”
Peggie also said, after a meeting about her suspension, that she felt Fraser was “pushing” for her to change to another department against her wishes.
Asked how she felt, she replied: “Not supported. I feel like people were taking the doctor’s side rather than mine.”
Cunningham also asked her client why certain members of staff did not give evidence during the first tribunal.
Peggie said: “I think possibly it was fear. They had seen the way I had been treated from senior staff members.”
The first tribunal, against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, became a high profile and controversial case. Peggie was backed by the campaign group Sex Matters, co-founded by Maya Forstater.
The RCN’s lawyer, David Hay KC, questioned Peggie about when she came to understand the phrase “gender critical”.
Peggie said it would have been “round about” the time she spoke to Forstater, which was shortly after she contacted her MP in January 2024.
“I was made aware that because of what had happened in the changing area, I didn’t believe biological men should be in women’s changing spaces.
“Being a sex realist was more or less the same as being gender critical.”
