JOHN Swinney has insisted he will “make no apology” to Elon Musk after last year accusing the trillionaire of spreading misinformation about an incident in which a 12-year-old girl was seen with a knife and axe.
The youngster had the weapons after being assaulted by Bulgarian Ilia Belov, with the 22-year-old telling the girl: “Come here sexy. I will show you how to have a good time.”
After Belov was last week convicted of assaulting the girl and behaving in a “threatening or abusive manner” towards four girls aged between 12 and 14, Reform UK leader in Scotland Malcolm Offord raised the issue with the First Minister in Holyrood – demanding he apologises to the child and her family.
Offord told MSPs the girl had been arrested during the incident in the Lochee area of Dundee in August 2025, and was “wildly vilified for wielding an axe and a knife” which she had used to “fend off a Bulgarian migrant and his sister”.
Raising the issue at First Minister’s Questions, he said: “The mother of this child, quite rightly, has demanded an apology from the police and from the First Minister for her daughter being branded as a liar, right-wing and a racist.”
Swinney said he would “of course” apologise to the girl, as he said his comments at the time of the incident last year were based on the information he had on the case at the time.
“I of course apologise to the young woman and her family concerned,” the SNP leader said.
He added that “we all deal with the situation as the information presents”.
But he insisted he would “make no apology for taking on Elon Musk”, with the First Minister saying he did not think the X owner was “an actor in good faith on these questions”.
Offord said Musk had “posed the question what kind of Government arrests little girls who try to defend themselves”, but said when that happened the First Minister had “piled in, accusing him of spreading misinformation”.
Swinney however told him: “At the time of this particular incident, the information available to me, provided through Police Scotland, led me to the conclusion that I set out.”
He went to caution Offord, saying “malevolent right-wing actors have piled in on particular issues to sow division in our society” and have later been “proved to be completely incorrect” with their comments.
The SNP leader added: “I suppose the lesson we should all draw from all of this is we should all be very, very careful about what we say, because if we’re not we’re going to fall into the trap of the right-wing, malevolent individuals who are determined to sow division in our society, and I want to have none of that in Scotland.”
