TASERS would be more humane than the standard police batons used to “bludgeon people into submission”, officers have told the Justice Secretary.

The Scottish Police Federation said calming people down with the threat of an intensely painful electrical shock from a taser was far better than beating them with a metal rod.

Around 500 specially trained officers in Police Scotland began using tasers in June.

However the SPF wants them to be given to all 17,000 rank-and-file officers, arguing the police need better protection from would-be attackers.

At a fringe at SNP conference, SPF general secretary Calum Steele told Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf: “If it was risk assessed, then every single police officer would be having a taser.

“The alternative to using a taser is to bludgeon someone into submission using a metal rod.

“When it comes to the continuum of force that police officers use, tasers fall below the use of a baton, that’s the reality of it.

"We currently have what we’re born with, our hands and our feet and our tongue in our head, hopefully that works more often that not.

“Then we have incapacitant sprays which nine times out of ten blow back an incapacitate the officer as much as they do anyone else.

“Then we have taser, and then we have a big metal rod to beat them into submission.

“Now, which is more humane? Is it more humane to put a dot on someone and say, ‘Behave or you’re going to be sore?’ or beat them until they stop fighting?

“Because if you give someone three feet of gun metal to batter someone till they stop fighting with you, that’s much more inhumane than any officer carrying a taser.”

Mr Yousaf said it was important to continue discussions on taser use, and said he knew from talking to officers how effective the use of a red dot was in getting people to desist.

Mr Steele also warned Mr Yousaf it was “dangerous” to be too ready to believe allegations of sexual assault and other crimes because of political considerations.

With the SNP government soon to consult on making misogyny a distinct hate crime, Mr Yousaf said: “Misogyny is so engrained and so systemic within society that we need a different and a radical approach to it.”

He raised the high-profile case of Dr Christine Blasey Ford alleging she was sexually assaulted by US Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 1982, which he denies.

Mr Yousaf said Dr Ford had come forward to “tell her story of sexual assault”.

When the host said it was an alleged assault, he replied said: “No, she is saying it’s sexual assault. You can allege whether it was Brett Kavanaugh or somebody else, but she’s telling you it was sexual assault.

"I’m not going to... She’s saying she was sexually assaulted.

“You can argue around the veracity and the truth about who did it, who didn't do it. My point is you can see from her testimony how harrowing it was."

Mr Steele corrected him. He said: “The reality is that is an alleged assault. It's not, she was assaulted and it might have been Brett Kavanaugh. That kind of basic narrative, that starts at a political level of we will believe you regardless, is problematic.

"I have a deep concern around the general principle of the allegation being the basis on which the assumption should be made that a crime has been committed.

"That's a dangerous position to adopt for anyone. Just because someone says something happened it doesn't mean that it did."

Mr Steele also questioned making misogyny an aggravating factor in hate crime, saying it could lead to people being called "speccy, fat or ginger" being classed in the same way.

Mr Yousaf also claimed Labour was now seen as "working against ethnic minorities".

He said Labour had for generations been seen as the natural party of ethnic minorities, but this has changed and raised questions over structural racism.

He highlighted two Labour councillors suspended for alleged racism, the discounting of votes by Asian members in two internal selections in Glasgow, and the sacking of the party’s only ethnic minority MSP, Anas Sarwar, from the Scottish Labour front bench.

He said: "You add all these things together and there is a question around, and I use purposely the term, structural racism."

He said police, government, all political parties and companies have to look at whether they have structural biases in their institutions, arguing "the world isn't colour blind" and saying he faces racism daily, which can be structural.

He added: "My point in all of this, is to question Labour, you used to be the party that stood up for minorities.

"You are now the party that is seen - rightly or wrongly so I just ask the question - to be working against ethnic minorities."