Civil rights groups have accused Humza Yousaf of being “naive” about his links to Sir Brian Souter, the millionaire who funds a network of conservative Christian groups that campaign against gay and women’s rights.
The Humanist Society of Scotland (HSS) said Scotland’s first minister faced “serious questions” after it emerged he courted Souter despite his longstanding hostility to equal marriage, abortion rights and trans rights.
Souter, formerly a regular donor to the Scottish National party, helped arrange a private business dinner at a boutique hotel in Edinburgh at Yousaf’s request last year, after inviting the first minister to attend a “prayer breakfast” soon after Yousaf won the SNP leadership contest.
The co-founder of the Stagecoach transport empire, Souter spent at least £1m unsuccessfully fighting in the early 2000s to keep the rules, known as section 28, that banned teachers from “promoting” gay rights in schools.
Over the past three years, Souter has given at least £650,000 to evangelical groups that oppose policies championed by Nicola Sturgeon such as barring protests outside abortion clinics, outlawing conversion practices and protecting trans people in Scotland.
These groups also oppose proposals to legalise assisted dying in Scotland that have won all-party backing at Holyrood, including one group with strong evangelical links called Care Not Killing, funded by Souter.
Ally Thomson, Scottish director of the pro-assisted dying group Dignity in Dying, said these groups represented a vocal minority with “a track record of opposing personal freedoms such as reproductive rights and equal marriage”.
The Guardian has found that Souter has funded two US-based evangelical organisations alleged in the US to have coveredup sexual assaults, discriminated against gay and lesbian members and forced unmarried mothers to give their babies for adoption.
The Souter Charitable Trust, which gives away £9m a year on his behalf, bought a chalet resort in the Highlands for the US evangelical group Young Life to hold Christian summer camps and to let out to holidaymakers.
Young Life is under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a US federal agency, after four women alleged it sexually discriminated against them after they reported sexual assaults or harassment by male Young Life members. Young Life declined to comment to US media, citing the EEOC investigation.
Young Life has also faced multiple discrimination allegations from LGBTQ+ members for allegedly banning gay couples from its camps, banning lesbians from volunteering, and attacking critics of its conservative stances on marriage and sexuality.
There are no suggestions similar allegations about Young Life have emerged in the UK. Young Life has said some people left the organisation “over disagreements with our beliefs and policies” and it welcomes same-sex attracted members if they remain celibate.
Souter has also given nearly £100,000 to the UK arm of Teen Challenge, an evangelical group accused of highly coercive conduct with pregnant and gay teenage girls at its residential schools in the US, including forced adoptions, and faced lawsuits there. Teen Challenge has denied these allegations.
In 2004, the Welsh government withdrew funding from Teen Challenge’s anti-addiction residential centres because officials believed public money was being used to promote its evangelical Christianity – an allegation Teen Challenge denied.
Fraser Sutherland, the chief executive of HSS, said Souter had refused to support the SNP while Sturgeon was leader.
“Voters have a right to know if there is even the smallest chance that Souter’s return could signal a shift towards more regressive, religiously influenced policy positions, as they have never backed or voted for such policies in recent elections,” Sutherland said.
Yousaf’s official spokesperson said the first minister was unequivocal in his defence of the SNP’s socially progressive policies such as the trans rights and abortion clinic buffer zones that Souter opposed; he had made it clear he disagreed with Souter on those issues.
However, Souter had a “formidable” record as a businessman that the Scottish government was determined to harness to create jobs “regardless of whether or not they share the same views on politics, the constitution, or social policy and equalities issues”.
A spokesperson for Souter said he was “unashamedly Christian and contributes to a wide range of secular and faith-based causes, which form the bedrock of a strong, free and civilised society for the good of all”.
The spokesperson said Souter had donated more than £100m to more than 13,000 organisations worldwide. Those included “groups that fight malaria, supply daily meals to hungry schoolchildren in Africa, or deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Gaza. He sees this work as part of his Christian duty and has no plans to stop.”
Speaking on behalf of Care Not Killing, Prof Kevin Yuill, founder of the recently formed group Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, said Care Not Killing was a secular group, including humanists.
“We are delighted to benefit from the funding provided by the Souter Charitable Trust to assist in our central aim of preventing the implementation of legislation which would result in state-sponsored killing through assisted suicide and euthanasia,” he said.
