Ally McCoist says police will need to arrest him and 48,000 Rangers fans, if they are to enforce Scotland’s ‘crazy’ new hate crime law, ahead of their game against rivals Celtic on Sunday

Ally McCoist has slammed Scotland’s new hate crime law and expects to break it – along with 48,000 Rangers fans – in this Sunday’s crunch Old Firm derby with Celtic.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on Monday, created a new crime of ‘stirring up hatred’ relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has already challenged the police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence after she described several transgender women as men.

Rowling said ‘freedom of speech and belief’ would end as a result of the new legislation.

Former Scotland and Rangers striker McCoist, 61, described the new law as ‘madness’, pointing out those in attendance at Ibrox this weekend will be at high risk of breaching it.

Celtic head across Glasgow leading the Scottish Premiership table by just a point from their bitter rivals Rangers, who retain game in hand.

There will be no Celtic fans in attendance at Ibrox this time but away allocations will return next season after a truce was reached between the two clubs.

McCoist told talkSPORT: ‘We’ve got a hate bill by the way, a hate bill has been passed in the country.

‘And I guarantee you, next Sunday at Ibrox, along with 48,000 will be committing a breach of that hate bill in the particular Rangers vs Celtic game we are all going to. It is madness.’

McCoist believes the new law is unpopular with the police because it is impossible to enforce.

‘That’s exactly what the police think. The police spokesperson has come out and more or less said that,’ he added.

‘He obviously can’t because he’ll get himself in trouble. He has implied it, everybody with two brain cells in their head knows it’s madness, crazy.

‘There is nobody in our country who thinks that is a good idea, who I have spoken to.’

Harry Potter author and prominent gender critic Rowling posted a string of tweets on X where she sarcastically urged her followers to respect ‘lovely Scottish lass’ Isla Bryson – a convicted double rapist.

In another, she ridiculed the new legislation by referring to Katie Dolatowski, a transgender paedophile who assaulted children in supermarket toilets, as ‘fragile flower’ who was ‘rightly sent to a women’s prison in Scotland’.

Rowling sarcastically highlighted other trans women who had been convicted of crimes.

She said Samantha Norris – a transgender charity worker who was jailed for possessing thousands of ‘abhorrent’ child abuse images – was ‘still a lady to me’.

In other posts she scoffed at those who had been given high-profile roles to represent women, such as UN Women selecting Munroe Bergdorf as its first ever UK champion. She wrote: ‘What makes a woman “a woman” has no definitive answer, says Munroe. Great choice, UN Women!’

Rowling said in a lengthy statement on X: ‘The re-definition of ‘woman’ to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women’s and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.

‘It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man.

‘Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.’

The author said that while she is out of the country, her series of tweets this morning ‘qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act’.

She added: ‘I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.’