Yousaf ‘misled MSPs over rail police plan’
Minister wrongly said merger was in SNP’s manifesto
TRANSPORT Minister Humza Yousaf has been accused of misleading the Scottish parliament and voters over plans to integrate British Transport Police (BTP) and Police Scotland.
The Scottish Government’s Railway Policing Bill sets out the SNP’s proposed merger of BTP with the single force – which is facing a financial black hole of more than £20million.
BTP officials and rail unions have criticised the ‘complicated’ move amid fears many experienced staff could quit.
Questioned at Holyrood last week, Mr Yousaf told MSPs the merger had been a manifesto promise. But it has now emerged that it was not in the list of SNP pledges put to Scotland’s electorate in May.
On Wednesday, Mr Yousaf was urged by Scottish Labour MSP Richard Leonard to ‘listen to the rail unions (and) the deputy chief constable of the BTP’ and ‘drop the proposed Railway Policing Bill’.
But Mr Yousaf said the SNP was ‘elected on a manifesto promise to do what we are doing with BTP integration, and I remind the member that we got more votes than his party and the main opposition party combined. That is the rationale behind what we are doing’.
But Mr Leonard has written to the minister saying: ‘I checked the entire contents of the SNP manifesto upon which you were elected from cover to cover. Nowhere did any such promise appear.
‘It would therefore appear that you have made a factual error and in so doing misled parliament, but more importantly (misled) the people who elect us.
‘Moreover, if the “rationale behind” what you are doing is a manifesto promise which does not exist, then I do not think that you can claim a mandate for this proposal at all.’
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘The SNP are all over the place on this issue.
‘They claim it was in their manifesto, but their ill thought-out plans to merge the BTP weren’t even mentioned. When the current system works perfectly well, you wonder why the SNP haven’t listened to the increasing number of voices telling them they shouldn’t go ahead with this move.’
BTP Federation chairman Nigel Goodband has warned that many experienced officers could leave the force, leaving its skills ‘diluted’, while Police Scotland has admitted the move would be ‘complicated’.
A spokesman for Mr Yousaf said the merger was a ‘well-documented ambition’ of the SNP, adding: ‘In September 2011 the then Justice Secretary wrote to the Transport Secretary to explore the potential (for a merger), with further exchanges during 2013 following the creation of Police Scotland.
‘The people would have been in no doubt about this position when they went to the polls in May.’