Yousaf faces vote to repeal ‘disastrous’ hate crime laws

HUMZA YOUSAF is facing a vote at Holyrood to repeal his “disastrous” hate crime laws amid warnings that a deluge of complaints is placing an intolerable strain on Police Scotland.

MSPS are to be asked to admit they made a mistake and back a Scottish Tory motion proposing that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act be repealed, barely a fortnight after it came into force.

Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tories’ justice secretary, said thousands of complaints tabled under the laws were taking a toll on “overstretched” police.

The motion is unlikely to pass when MSPS vote on it tomorrow as the Tories were the only party to oppose the legislation during its passage at Holyrood in 2021. The Snp-green coalition government has a majority.

However, it is likely to ramp up pressure on Mr Yousaf and Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, to think again if some of their backbenchers rebel.

Mr Yousaf oversaw the passage of the laws at Holyrood when he was justice secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s government. It came into force on April 1.

It creates a criminal offence of “stirring up hatred”, expanding on a similar offence based on racist abuse. The legislation extends this to other grounds on the basis of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or trans identity.

Concerns have been expressed that the laws’ definition of a hate crime is too ambiguous and that it triggered a torrent of vexatious complaints. Police Scotland vowed to investigate each one.

In the first week of the legislation, 7,152 online hate reports were made, though fewer than 4 per cent (240) were recorded as hate crimes.

Mr Findlay appealed to Labour and Lib Dem MSPS, and “the more sensible Nationalists”, to “admit they made a huge mistake”.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Hate Crime Act helps to tackle the harm caused by hatred and prejudice and provide greater protection for people in society and communities who face hatred just because of who they are. It does not prevent people expressing controversial, challenging or offensive views – nor does it seek to stifle criticism or rigorous debate in any way and the right to freedom of expression is built into the Act.”

Liam Mcarthur, the Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman, said: “I will be lodging an amendment that challenges the poor communication and preparation that has accompanied the implementation of this law.” Labour was approached for comment.