The press watchdog has rejected a complaint against a daily newspaper columnist who claimed opponents of transgender reform represented only a “small minority.”

Mark Smith, left, wrote a piece in Glasgow-based daily The Herald saying the opponents of transgender reform “represent a small minority that has mastered the art of heckling over the heads of the majority.”

Reader Gordon Cowan complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over the column, arguing that Mark’s claim was inaccurate and citing four opinion polls which he said showed the reform was opposed by the public.

But IPSO sided with The Herald after the paper produced its own evidence, showing 60pc of 15,500 people who responded to a government consultation on the matter backed the plan.

Mark, pictured, had used his column to discuss “proposed reforms to Scotland’s transgender laws” and whether the LGBT community was accepted in Scotland.

In it, he was critical of the decision to put the matter “out to consultation” in circumstances where a consultation had already been undertaken which showed “overwhelming public support” for reform.

In his complaint under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, Mr Cowan said the claim that the opponents of transgender reform represent a small minority was inaccurate.

He added that numerous opinion polls had been conducted on the proposed changes to gender recognition laws, which aim to allow transgender people to self-declare their gender without verification by medical professionals.

Mr Cowan said that in each of the polls public opinion opposed the change by margins of between three to one and four to one and provided examples to IPSO to illustrate his point.

In response, The Herald denied that the article was inaccurate and said Mark’s claim was based the findings of the Scottish government’s 2018 consultation on the review of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

It said that the consultation had attracted more than 15,500 individual responses, of which 60pc in total and 65pc of Scottish respondents agreed with the proposal to introduce a self-declaratory system for legal gender recognition.

The Herald added while the Scottish government did not provide a breakdown of the remaining 40pc, it was reasonable to infer that they were against the proposal as it would be unlikely for someone to respond if their position was effectively one of abstention.

It said this study contrasted with the comparatively low samples featured in the opinion polls cited by Mr Cowan, some of which were conducted by groups opposing reforms, meant that it was not misleading for Mark to rely on the Scottish government’s consultation to support his claim in the context of a comment piece.

Mr Cowan disputed that the consultation represented an accurate source for the claim, but IPSO rejected this assertion.

In circumstances where the article had referenced the government consultation, in which 60pc of respondents had supported the introduction of a self-declaratory system, IPSO did not consider that it was significantly misleading for the article to claim that opponents of reform to transgender laws represented a “small minority”.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.