Rishi Sunak accuses SNP of 'trying to lock up JK Rowling' with hate crime law

Rishi Sunak has accused the SNP of "trying to lock up JK Rowling" with its new hate crime law.

The Tory Prime Minister told MPs the Nationalists should stop "obsessing about independence and indeed wasting time cracking down on free speech".

He was referring to the Scottish Government's new hate crime law which came into place this month and has been criticised by the Harry Potter author.

Sunak was speaking in response to Stephen Flynn during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday afternoon.

The SNP Westminster leader asked Sunak about comments by former Labour PM Gordon Brown on independence earlier this week.

Brown had told the FT: "In the long run, the forces pulling Britain apart are greater than the forces holding it together, unless something is done about it.”

Flynn told MPs: “A former prime minister who oversaw a financial crash before being unceremoniously tossed from office told the public the truth - and I'm not referring to that one - because on Monday, Gordon Brown told the people of these isles that the forces pulling Britain apart are greater than the forces holding it together.

“So maybe the Prime Minister can find some time this afternoon to perhaps agree with just one of his predecessors.”

Sunak said that he and Brown agreed “very strongly” that “Scotland would be far stronger inside the United Kingdom.”

Flynn raised comments from STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer in his reply.

Foyer told the Daily Record independence remains “unresolved” and that it “can be a very dangerous place to end up in when you are not allowing people to express their wishes in a democratic manner.”

Flynn said: “So may I ask the Prime Minister, does he welcome their fulsome, wholehearted and warm support of the Labour Party in denying the people of Scotland that opportunity to have a say over their own future?”

Sunak replied: “We did have a democratic vote on that topic.

“But what I would suggest to the SNP is that rather than obsessing about independence and indeed wasting time cracking down on free speech and trying to lock up JK Rowling, he should focus on what the people in Scotland actually care about – schools, hospitals, jobs, and our new tax cuts.”

Rowling hit out at the new hate crime law on the day it came into place. She challenged the police to arrest her for calling trans women men.

Police said they would not arrest the writer.

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