Tories to force vote on repealing hate crime legislation

THE Scottish Conservatives have announced they will force a vote on whether to repeal new hate crime laws, forcing Scottish Labour and the LibDems to take a stance on the issue.

The Tories have opposed the Hate Crime Act since its inception, however both Anas Sarwar’s and Alex Cole-Hamilton’s MSPs backed the legislation as it wound its way through Parliament.

Both have remained quiet on the legislation since it came into force at the beginning of the month, despite a barrage of criticism from the Tories and high-profile figures including JK Rowling, X/Twitter owner Elon Musk and US podcaster Joe Rogan.

The Tories have called on Labour, the LibDems and “the more sensible Nationalists” to back their calls to repeal the legislation.

They said the Hate Crime Act is “taking a huge toll on Scotland’s police officers” despite Stewart

Carle, general secretary of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, saying the number of reports would not divert officers’ attention from serious crime.

Last week it was revealed that in the law’s first seven days, 7152 hate crime reports were made, many of which the Scottish Tories have claimed were “vexatious”.

Russell Findlay, the party’s justice spokesperson, said: “Humza Yousaf’s disastrous hate crime law has caused utter chaos in the fortnight since its introduction. It is proving every bit as unworkable as many critics warned and must be repealed.

“As well as being an unacceptable risk to free speech, it is taking a huge toll on Scotland’s police officers. They’re being deluged with thousands of complaints, many of them vexatious.

“Officer numbers are at their lowest level since 2008, and the police were already turning a blind eye to certain crimes, so this increased workload is completely unsustainable.”