Conservative’s bid to scrap Hate Crime Act was ‘reckless and unforgivable’
Humza Yousaf has described a Conservative attempt to scrap his controversial new hate crime law as “reckless and frankly unforgivable”.
The First Minister accused the party of “debasing” political discourse through its opposition to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which came into force on April 1.
It comes as Mr Yousaf said police officers had been thevictimsofalmost a quarter of reports under the new law.
But Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said Mr Yousafhadhisheadinthesand, as he claimed “40 officers a day have been brought in on overtime” to deal with complaints. The pair exchanged verbal blows during the first session of First Minister’s Questions in Holyrood since the Easter break.
MSPS rejected a Tory motion to repeal the Hate Crime Act on Wednesday.
Mr Yousaf said: “What we’ve witnessed over the last few weeks is, I think, the most worrying, concerning debasing of our political discourse by the Conservative Party in relation to the Hate Crime Act.”
He added: “If the Hate Crime Act didn’t exist, with the stroke of a pen, it would have removed protection against stirring up of hatred for those who suffer racist abuse, for those who suffer anti-semitism, for those who suffer Islamophobia, for those who suffer homophobia, transphobia, those who sufferabusebecauseof theirdisability.what arecklessandfrankly unforgivable approach for a party that seems more interested in gaining shoddy tabloid headlines than actually protecting people from hatred.”
Mr Ross said concerns had been raised by police officers and legal figures, while polling showed the legislation was unpopular with the Scottish public. Lord Hope of Craighead, one of Scotland's most senior legal figures, previously condemnedtheactas“unworkable”.
The Scottish Tory leader said: “It is a disgrace, First Minister, that you are unwilling to accept thefailuresofyourbillandlisten to the voice of police officers up and down the country.”
Mr Yousaf said there had been “deliberatedisinformationfrom the Conservatives and many otherbadfaithactors,whohave refused to look at what the law actually does”. He said Police Scotland had dealt well with thousands of complaints, and only a minority had ended up being recorded as hate crimes.
But Mr Ross said: “Humza Yousafissittingheresayingeverything is fine with his legislation, just like he did with the ferries he couldn’t get to sail, the trains he couldn’t get to run on time and the NHS waiting lists thatgrewunderhisstewardship of the health service.
“We warned him all of these problems with the Hate Crime Act would happen. We warned the police would be overwhelmed, the law was poorly written,itwouldputfreespeech atrisk.hedismissedeverysingle valid criticism. Humza Yousaf said he knew best.
“Now the police, legal experts andthepublicaretellinghimhe has got this badly wrong. The only person in Scotland who seems to think this Act is working well is Humza Yousaf.”
Figures published on Tuesday showed the number of hate crime complaints dropped by almost 75 per cent in the second week of the new law.