JUSTICE Secretary Humza Yousaf has hit back at opposition MSPs over claims Police Scotland’s fleet of vehicles is not fit for purpose.
A freedom of information request published by the LibDems on Sunday highlighted more than 250 police cars are over a decade old.
Speaking at Holyrood yesterday, Scottish Conservative MSP Liam Kerr asked the Justice Secretary whether he thought it was acceptable that officers were having to apprehend criminals in vehicles “held together with duct tape”.
Yousaf responded by accusing the Tory MSP of “crocodile tears”, having refused to support the Scottish Government’s budget, which was passed earlier this year after an agreement was reached with the Greens.
“When we brought forward the capital budget increase of 52%, he and his colleagues voted against that budget,” Yousaf said.
“£100 million resource protection up until 2021 and Liam Kerr and his party voted against it.”
Yousaf also accused the UK Government of “pinching”
£125m in VAT money from Police Scotland and said Kerr had done “hee-haw” about it.
The Justice Secretary added total Scottish Government funding to the Scottish Police Authority for 2019-20 would increase by £42.3m, bringing the annual policing budget to more than £1.2 billion.
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