> Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has given his support to a vote in Holyrood this week calling for the Hate Crime Act to be scrapped.
> He will join fellow Conservatives in using their party business on Wednesday to debate the legislation which has attracted widespread criticism since it was introduced earlier this month. The Scottish Conservatives were the only party to vote against the original Bill, with the SNP, Labour and the Liberal Democrats whipping their MSPs to support it.
Ahead of Wednesday's debate, Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said:
"The SNP’s hate crime legislation is already causing widespread concern just weeks after it was introduced.
"As well as posing a significant threat to freedom of expression, it also wastes valuable police resources by inundating them with endless frivolous complaints, all of which have to be looked into.
"With police numbers already at their lowest since 2008, and with policing budgets under severe pressure, Police Scotland is already stretched thin and too often unable to adequately tackle genuine criminal activity.
“This is a particular concern in many of our rural and island communities where policing dispersed homes and communities is already a significant challenge, and where additional resources can’t just be drafted in as easily as they might in urban areas.
"This only highlights the growing disconnect between those in government in Edinburgh who have, yet again, introduced policies with scant regard for how they will impact rural Scotland or those of us who live in Scotland’s island communities.
"While Labour and the Lib Dems originally backed the SNP’s Hate Crime Bill, I hope they will recognise the damage it is doing and join the Scottish Conservatives in trying to repeal Humza Yousaf’s failed and unpopular legislation”.
ENDS
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