Humza Yousaf has announced he is resigning as First Minister of Scotland.
Mr Yousaf’s decision to abruptly end the SNP’s power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens last week following a bitter row over government climate targets caused his leadership to unravel, precipitating what Tom Harris, writing for the Telegraph, describes as “the country’s greatest political crisis since devolution began in 1999”.
Following this surprise decision to scrap the SNP’s coalition deal, it was clear that the career of the anointed heir to Nicola Sturgeon was hanging by a thread.
A motion of no confidence in Mr Yousaf tabled by the Scottish Conservatives quickly gained the backing of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens.
A separate motion of no confidence in the Scottish Government tabled by Labour also had the backing of the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, with the Greens undecided.
The First Minister’s subsequent plea for opposition parties to find “common ground” with the SNP was rejected by the Scottish Conservatives as “humiliating and embarrassing”, while Scottish Labour described it as an act of “desperation”.
Delivering his resignation statement at Bute House in Edinburgh on Monday, Mr Yousaf said: “While a route through this week’s motion of no confidence was absolutely possible, I am not willing to trade my values and principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power.
“Therefore, after spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm.
“I have therefore informed the SNP’s national secretary of my intention to stand down as party leader and ask that she commences a leadership contest for my replacement as soon as possible.”
Writing in the Telegraph, Gordon Rayner says that Mr Yousaf’s hate crime and trans laws will be his “divisive legacy”.
He continues: “Having talked up his plans to reform the Scottish NHS, ease the cost of living crisis and improve rural housing when he was elected, Mr Yousaf will instead be remembered, briefly, as the man who turned the Orwellian nightmare of thoughtcrimes to reality through the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which tied up police resources investigating whether JK Rowling was a criminal and whether or not to record non-crime hate incidents when anyone opined that men could not be women.
“By empowering trans ideologists to report anyone who disagreed with them to the police – with a promise that every complaint would be investigated – Mr Yousaf ensured his complete alienation from voters who wanted their police to solve burglaries and their politicians to focus on Scotland’s appalling record on health, education and drug addiction.”
Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act broadens the offence of ‘stirring up racial hatred’, extending it to the protected characteristics of disability, religion, sexual orientation, age, transgender identity and ‘variations in sex characteristics’.
The Bill won the backing of a majority of MSPs in March 2021, despite concerns that the entire section on stirring up hatred (section three) was “fundamentally flawed” and represented an “attack” on freedom of speech.
Activation of the legislation was then delayed while Police Scotland began the process of “training, guidance and communications planning”.
Putting aside race (which is handled slightly differently to the other protected characteristics) committing the ‘stirring up’ offence requires:
1) Behaviour or communication to another person of material that a “reasonable person” would consider threatening or abusive; and
2) Intention to stir up hatred against a group of persons defined by a protected characteristic.
As per the legislation’s protections for freedom of expression, it will not be deemed “abusive and threatening” to engage “solely” in “discussion or criticism” about age or any of the other protected characteristics.
Scots are also expressly permitted to voice “antipathy, dislike, ridicule or insult” for religion.
However, that carve-out does not apply to the legislation’s other protected characteristics, raising serious free speech concerns, not least for those who express gender critical beliefs and challenge basic tenets of gender ideology.
As first reported in the Times, almost 1,000 new Scottish members have joined the FSU since the Act was activated, most of them women, and all concerned at the threat to free speech posed by the country’s draconian new law.
In response we’ve set up a Hate Speech Hotline in case any of them get into trouble with the police about something they’ve said. We’ve also put an arrangement in place with Levy & McRea, a top firm of criminal lawyers in Scotland, so if any of our members are arrested or interviewed under caution for something speech-related we can come to their aid.
Speaking to the Times about the work we’re doing to support our members, FSU General Secretary Toby Young said: “We felt we needed to put a hotline in place in case any of them get into trouble with the police about something they’ve said. If they’re arrested or interviewed under caution for something speech-related, we will do our best to get them a lawyer.”
The FSU is already supporting the Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, who is considering a legal challenge against Police Scotland, which he claims has breached human rights laws, data protection laws and equality laws over its recording of a complaint against him as a hate incident. (You can find out more about Mr Fraser’s case here).
Neil Hay, of Levy & Macrae, said: “We are delighted to be appointed by the FSU to represent the interests of their members in this new and novel area of the law.”
If you’re an existing FSU member, you can find the Hotline number, as well as detailed instructions about what to do if you’re arrested in Scotland for a speech-related offence in the following set of FAQs.
The Hotline number is also available to members in this separate set of FAQs, which answers questions about the new criminal offences created by the Hate Crime Act.
