TORY minister Kemi Badenoch has claimed the SNP are “too lazy” to do their own legislative work amid a spat over the UK Government’s handling of the Post Office scandal.
Humza Yousaf claimed the UK Government was using Scottish postmasters who were caught up in the Horizon IT scandal as “political pawns” after it decided not to extend legislation to exonerate those wrongly convicted to Scotland.
Yousaf said on Tuesday he was “utterly furious” that Westminster had agreed the bill — which was originally proposed to cover only England and Wales — should be extended to cover Northern Ireland, but still would not apply to Horizon victims in Scotland.
He added: “It is hard to think that the UK Government are doing anything other than using our Scottish sub-postmasters and mistresses as a political pawns.”
READ MORE: SNP MSP urges Humza Yousaf to end Bute House Agreement
But Business Secretary Badenoch said Scotland had a different legal system and should “stop whining”.
“The SNP want independence but are too lazy to do the work,” she wrote on Twitter/X.
“They have powers to get justice for the postmasters. They should stop whining and get on with it.”
Holyrood ministers will bring forward their on legislation to exonerate sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted because of the faulty Horizon software, but they have insisted it would be simpler if the UK Government’s legislation could be expanded to cover Scotland.
Angela Constance, the Scottish justice secretary, said on Tuesday the UK Government decision not to apply the legislation north of border represented a “betrayal of Scotland’s Horizon victims”.
READ MORE: Scottish Greens demand end to council cuts if party sticks with SNP
Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, wrote in a letter to Constance that Scotland was a “historically separate legal jurisdiction”, noting prosecutions there had not been carried out by the Post Office, but by the Lord Advocate.
Hollinrake said: “It remains the UK Government’s view that it is more appropriate for the Scottish government to bring forward proposals to address prosecutions on this matter in Scotland, and for these to be scrutinised by the Scottish parliament.”
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