THE SNP needs “a good shake” to snap it out of its infighting, Humza Yousaf has said.
The Justice Secretary said the party had “never been closer” to its goal of independence and needed to focus on that instead of bickering.
In recent months, the party has seen feuding among senior figures over candidate selections for next year’s Holyrood election, the competence of its ruling National Executive Committee, and the best route to Independence and possible alternatives to Indyref2.
There is also long-running tension over women's rights and reforms to the Gender Recognition Act.
Speaking to Holyrood magazine, Mr Yousaf expressed frustration about the squabbling within the SNP and the wider Yes movement.
He said: “I feel like if the party was a person, I'd just grab it by the shoulders and give them a good shake, and just say to the party, ‘Just pull yourself together here’.
“I've been in the party for 15 years, many people have been far longer than me, but in the 15 years that I've been the party, we have never ever been closer to our goal.”
The Justice Secretary also defended his government’s Hate Crime Bill, which has been widely attacked as a threat to free speech.
Last week Mr Yousaf, who is piloting the Bill through Holyrood, vowed to reflect on concerns raised by authors, artists and comedians, including actor Rowan Atkinson and crime writer Val McDermid.
They warned the criminalisation of behaviour which was likely to "stir up" hatred, even if accidental, could hamper artistic expression.
The Scottish Police Federation last month said the Bill was so vague it could “paralyse freedom of speech”, while the Law Society of Scotland said it had “major flaws”.
Mr Yousaf said the Bill would not criminalise author JK Rowling for discussing women and transgender rights, something which recently saw her labelled as transphobic.
He said: “If you were to say a trans man is not a real man or trans woman is not a real woman, you would not be prosecuted under the Bill... so long as you didn't do it in a threatening or abusive way that is intended or likely stir up hatred.
“If I went up to a trans man, put them up against the wall and said, ‘You’re not a real man,’ or burst into a meeting with 100 people, and it was a meeting of trans men, and said, ‘Trans men are not real men,’ then potentially, you know, if I was being threatening or abusive and likely to stir up hatred, then I would be committing a crime.
“But JK Rowling putting out a tweet as she did, expressing her views, would just not be prosecuted under the hate crime bill.”
Free to Disagree, which opposes the Bill, said its loose language meant Ms Rowling’s critics could still allege she had stirred up hatred, regardless of what Mr Yousaf said, and said his other, violent examples were covered by existing laws.
A spokesman said: “We accept that Mr Yousaf does not intend to curb free speech. However, he cannot deny the serious problems with his proposals."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel