SNP minister’s father resigns party membership over ‘antisemitic’ Facebook post

Tom Arthur condemned the post reportedly shared by his dad

Tom Arthur MSP

The father of an SNP minister has resigned from the party over a social media post that was condemned as antisemitic.

It came after Police Scotland was criticised for reportedly failing to take action over the incident under hate crime laws.

An image of a Nazi swastika within a Star of David was said to have been posted on the Facebook page of Tom Arthur Snr, who is the father of public finance minister Tom Arthur.

The graphic included the phrase “Nazism = Zionism”. The SNP said the post was “unacceptable” and Mr Arthur Snr had resigned his membership.

The Daily Mail previously reported that a former police officer had flagged the Facebook post to the force under the Hate Crime Act. However, the woman, who did not wish to be identified, said officers then questioned her about her own background.

She told the paper an officer had said the police were “snowed under” with hate crime complaints, adding: “The officer called me later that afternoon. He said, ‘Can I ask you, are you Jewish?’ I said no. He said, ‘I'm going to ask you again; it's just because I need the box ticked. Do you identify as being Jewish?’ I said no, I'm not going to lie to get anybody charged. He said, ‘Well, that falls outwith the parameters. It won't be moving forward as a crime. It will be logged as an incident, but it will not be going further criminally’.”

Police Scotland said it was investigating a complaint “as a communications offence”, rather than under hate crime laws.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which the Scottish Government formally adopted in 2017, gives “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as an example.

An SNP spokeswoman said: "The SNP stands firmly against antisemitism. The social media post is unacceptable and would have been subject to disciplinary investigation had the individual concerned not resigned their party membership with immediate effect."

Mr Arthur Snr’s son Tom, who is the MSP for Renfrewshire South, said: “As an SNP MSP, I stand against discrimination of any kind. The online post shared by a family member falls far short of that position and I condemn the views expressed.

“Six months on from Hamas's barbaric terrorist attack which claimed the lives of more than 1000 innocent civilians, I will continue to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and for a permanent two state solution to pave the way towards peace in the region.”

Police have been dealing with a deluge of complaints under the new Hate Crime Act, which creates a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, including age, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. A stirring-up offence on the basis of race has been on the statute book in Scotland since 1986.

The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has criticised the level of training given to officers. David Threadgold, chair of the SPF, told the BBC he suspects many officers have still not received their online training. “Some officers have talked about a lack of confidence in dealing with the nuances of this legislation,” he said.