By Lucy Ashton

An SNP backbencher has called for the XL Bully ban in Scotland to be annulled, just weeks after saying the Scottish Government were being “bullied” into the move.

Dog lover MSP Christine Grahame’s motion, lodged at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, calls for Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee to step in to block the legislation coming into force later this month.

First Minister Humza Yousaf had initially resisted calls for a ban before he was forced into a hasty U-turn last month amid a flood of reports about unscrupulous owners dodging the ban in England and Wales by rehoming the dogs in Scotland.

Some 15 people are said to have been killed by an XL Bully or XL Bully cross in the UK since November 2021, with dozens more attacked and injured – including several recent cases in Scotland involving rehomed animals.

Ms Grahame’s motion, Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Greene said: “It was bad enough that the SNP Government dragged their heels over replicating the sensible UK ban – leading to an influx of these deadly dogs to Scotland – but now rebels in their own party are seeking to overturn their belated U-turn.

Speaking last month, she described the regulations as “hasty and simplistic” and called for tighter controls on XL Bullies through the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act – which was brought forward as a Members’ Bill by Ms Grahame in 2010.

The MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale said: “It places blame and responsibility where it lies – on the breeder and the owner, not the dog.”

Christine Grahame (centre) with parliamentary dog lovers at Holyrood. Picture by Alan Simpson