JK Rowling hits out at Humza Yousaf’s ‘bumbling incompetence’ in social media post

JK Rowling has taken a swipe at Humza Yousaf’s “bumbling incompetence and illiberal authoritarianism” in a post on social media.

The author criticised the First Minister amid an ongoing row over Scotland’s new hate crime laws.

It came after Mr Yousaf said comments by Ms Rowling "may well be offensive, upsetting and insulting to trans people” but did not meet a criminal threshold.

Police Scotland confirmed on Wednesday that a series of tweets by the Harry Potter writer did not fall foul of the new Hate Crime Act.

Ms Rowling had listed a number of transgender women, including violent criminals and activists, and insisted “every last one” is a man.

She then challenged the police to arrest her under the new hate crime legislation if they believed she had committed an offence.

Mr Yousaf told BBC Scotland News: "Those new offences that have been created by the Act have a very high threshold for criminality. The behaviour has to be threatening or abusive and intends to stir up hatred. So it doesn't deal with people just being offended or upset or insulted."

He said Ms Rowling’s tweets were a "perfect example of that".

He added: "Anybody who read the Act will not have been surprised at all that there's no arrests made. JK Rowling's tweets may well be offensive, upsetting and insulting to trans people. But it doesn't mean that they meet a threshold of criminality of being threatening or abusive and intending to stir up hatred."

Responding to a news story that quoted Mr Yousaf’s “offensive and upsetting” comment, Ms Rowling replied: “Most of Scotland is upset and offended by Yousaf’s bumbling incompetence and illiberal authoritarianism, but we aren’t lobbying to have him locked up for it.”

Ms Rowling has more than 14 million followers on X, formerly Twitter.