FIRST Minister John Swinney has spoken out after US vice president JD Vance claimed the Scottish Government had made it illegal for people to pray in their own homes.
Vance used a speech in Munich last Friday to argue Europe was seeing a shift away from democratic values. He claimed the “basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular” are under threat, citing the Scottish Government law as an example.
The buffer zone legislation passed the Scottish Parliament in a historic moment last year, and sees anti-abortion protests within 200 metres of abortion service providers banned.
The US vice president said: "This last October, the Scottish Government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called 'safe access zones', warning them that even private prayer, within their own home may amount to breaking the law.
"Naturally, the Government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime.”
Speaking to reporters in Glasgow on Wednesday, the First Minister said: "Well, JD Vance is just wrong and that issue was extensively discussed in the course of the passage of the bill." "On the letter that was issued to households, his claims were wrong about that letter as well, and no such point was put across to residents whatsoever about private prayer". When asked if he had any plans to make a statement on the claims by Vance in the Scottish Parliament chamber, the First Minister said he had no plans to make a formal statement.
Swinney was later asked whether he backed the letter by Greens MSP Gillian Mackay, who spearhead the legislation, to the US embassy requesting they correct “lies” told by Vance about Scotland.
He said: "I think these claims are wrong and I've corrected them. My ministers have corrected them, the government's corrected them, and I think it should be acknowledged by all concerned that these claims are incorrect."
