Police receive complaints over speech in Scottish Parliament by Humza Yousaf as Hate Crime Act implemented

A number of complaints have been made to police in relation to a four-year-old speech made in parliament by Humza Yousaf following the introduction of a controversial new law.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act came into effect on Monday, consolidating existing hate crime legislation and creating a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics.

A 45-second clip of a lengthy speech Yousaf made in June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd gained traction online last year after the owner of X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk had replied “What a blatant racist!” in response to a post by a prominent right-wing social media account.

The video had been shared by similar accounts in the months prior.

But a fact check carried out by the Reuters news agency had concluded that the clip misrepresented his comments by suggesting he had been arguing that Scotland contained too many white people.

At the time, Reuters said: “Yousaf’s speech was given as part of a wider discussion about racial injustice and the lack of people of colour in positions of power in the Scottish Parliament and government.

“The speech did not assert that white people make up too large a proportion of Scotland’s overall population.”

Yousaf, who was justice secretary at the time, told MSPs that the country had to “accept the reality and the evidence that is in front of us, that Scotland has a problem of structural racism”.

He added “in 99% of their meetings I go to, I am the only non-white person in the room”.

After the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act came into effect on Monday, critics of the new law have retroactively reported Yousaf for the speech.

Police Scotland confirmed it had received “a number of complaints” in relation to speech in parliament, but had previously established no crime had been committed.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We have received a number of complaints in relation to a speech in the Scottish Parliament on June 10, 2020.

“Earlier complaints regarding this matter were assessed at the time and it was established no crime was committed and no further action was required.”