Yousaf hits back at Ross’s Tory Party
HUMZA Yousaf hit back at Douglas Ross after the latter claimed during First Minister’s Questions that the Conservative Party have a “zero tolerance to hate”.
The Scottish Tory leader repeatedly criticised the Hate Crime Act, which will come into force on April 1, in the Holyrood chamber yesterday, first raising the experience of his colleague Murdo Fraser who has threatened to take Police Scotland to court for keeping a record of a hate claim against him despite concluding he had not committed a crime.
The Tory MSP said he had been reported to the police after comparing being non-binary to identifying as a cat. Ross asked: “How can it be right that innocent people are put on the police record when they have done nothing wrong?”
The First Minister responded that “context” is important and that the recording of non-crime hate incidents comes as a direct result of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.
He added that the practice has been around for “many, many years” – and that there is nothing in the legislation that changes how incidents are recorded.
Ross went on to say that “we all have a zero-tolerance approach to hate” but claimed that the law was “ripe for abuse”.
Yousaf then hit back, saying: “I’m not entirely convinced that when you take money from a racist, misogynist, and then refuse to give it back, that’s a zero-tolerance approach,” he said – referring to the Tory Party refusing to hand back £15 million from donor Frank Hester after he allegedly said that Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.
The SNP leader then quoted Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell who said that recording incidents gives the force “a sense of community tensions” and are useful to the police in terms of “engaging with communities, engaging with different groups and communities