JD Wetherspoon condemns staff who refused to serve gender-critical campaigners celebrating Supreme Court ruling
Several employees at one of the chain's Edinburgh pubs snubbed the co-leaders of feminist group For Women Scotland, Susan Smith and Marion Calder, after recognising their faces.
- Have YOU been excluded for your gender critical views? Email matt.strudwick@dailymail.co.uk
By MATT STRUDWICK, NEWS REPORTER
Published: 09:00 GMT, 29 December 2025 | Updated: 12:05 GMT, 29 December 2025
JD Wetherspoon boss Sir Tim Martin has condemned his own staff who refused to serve gender-critical campaigners celebrating the landmark Supreme Court ruling.
Several employees at one of the chain's Edinburgh pubs snubbed the co-leaders of feminist group For Women Scotland, Susan Smith and Marion Calder, after recognising their faces.
Ms Calder, 54, an NHS worker, phoned a local journalist and told them, 'you'll never guess what's happened here at Spoons'.
They then rang the Wetherspoon's communications manager, who then called the branch's manager. The protesting staff then left and 'we got more drinks in'.
The trailblazing duo had taken a train back to the city in April and headed to the branch to raise a glass to the landmark judgment handed down by five Supreme Court justices that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
Founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon, Sir Tim Martin, described the incident as an 'initial hiccup'.
He told the Daily Mail: 'If you win a court case, especially a Supreme Court case, you would expect to be allowed to celebrate in a pub, so glad they were able to do so – albeit after an initial hiccup.'
Susan Smith (left) and Marion Calder (right) co-directors of For Women Scotland celebrate outside the Supreme Court in London in April
Founder and chairman of Wetherspoon Sir Tim Martin is pictured here in October 2020
Labour minister Bridget Phillipson is currently delaying the publication of new Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on women-only spaces after branding the proposals 'trans-exclusive'.
The Women and Equalities Secretary has not yet signed off the draft guidance more than three months after receiving it, despite the landmark Supreme Court ruling that sex under equality law means biological sex.
The EHRC guidance was drawn up following the court's decision in April and would require businesses and public bodies to protect single-sex spaces such as women's lavatories, changing rooms and hospital wards.