Stop trying to lock up JK, Rishi taunts SNP

THE SNP should stop ‘trying to lock up JK Rowling’ and tackle the crisis facing Scotland’s hospitals and schools, the Prime Minister said yesterday.

Rishi Sunak criticised the SNP for ‘wasting time cracking down on free speech’ during Prime Minister’s Questions.

In the exchange, Stephen Flynn, the nationalists’ leader at Westminster, highlighted comments made by former prime minister Gordon Brown and Scottish Trades Union Congress general secretary Roz Foyer on independence remaining an unresolved issue.

Quoting Ms Foyer, Mr Flynn said: ‘She said, “that can be a very dangerous place to end up in, when you are not allowing people to express their wishes in a democratic manner”.’

Mr Sunak replied: ‘We did have a democratic vote on that topic. But what I would suggest to the SNP is that rather than obsessing about independence and indeed wasting time cracking down on free speech and trying to lock up JK Rowling, he should focus on what the people in Scotland actually care about – schools, hospitals, jobs and our new tax cuts.’

It came as First Minister Humza Yousaf levelled thinly veiled criticism at Ms Rowling, as he hit out at ‘bad faith actors’ who are ‘intent on turning every issue into a culture war’.

His comments came amid an ongoing row over a forthcoming Bill on misogyny. Mr Yousaf said on Tuesday the Bill would cover transgender women who suffer misogynistic abuse.

The First Minister’s remarks sparked a backlash, including from author JK Rowling, who suggested trans women would have ‘double protection’ under the law.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday, the writer accused Mr Yousaf of showing ‘absolute contempt for women’.