No evidence government minister said Scotland isn’t a country

A post on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) appears to falsely attribute a quote to the Scottish Conservative MP and energy minister, Andrew Bowie. 

A passage of text written across Mr Bowie’s parliamentary portrait says: “Scotland isn’t a country. I am British and nothing but British and every person in Scotland is British, whether they assume they are not. [sic] Scottish isn’t a nationality either”. 

Comments on the post suggest that some people have taken it to mean that Mr Bowie has said this. 

However, Full Fact has not been able to find any evidence of Mr Bowie making these comments, and his office told us the quote was “entirely fabricated”. 

A spokesperson for Mr Bowie said: “Andrew is proudly Scottish and British.”

Mr Bowie posted a screenshot of the X post that featured the image, and said it was a “completely fake quote”. 

In the past, Mr Bowie has said he is “proud to be Scottish and British”. 

False or misleading claims about politicians have the potential to affect people’s opinions of individuals, parties or how they choose to vote. We often see these types of claims spread widely online. Social media companies should take care to tackle and remove such misinformation when it arises on their platforms. 

Image courtesy of Garvit Nama.