To Scotland, where in just over a week’s time, the first Holyrood by-election for six years will take place. It’s set to a be a tight race in the constituency of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and tensions between the political parties in the running are rising. Now Nigel Farage has hit out at Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, rather bizarrely accusing the Glasgow politician of introducing ‘sectarianism into Scottish politics’ as the spat between the pair continues. Dear oh dear…
Farage’s remarks follow the feud over Reform UK’s attack ad, which has selectively clipped one of Sarwar’s speeches from 2022 to claim that the Scottish Labour leader will ‘prioritise the Pakistani community’. In the talk, the lefty leader can be heard urging those from Pakistani and South Asian backgrounds to get involved in politics. The MSP insists in the video:
Pakistan needs to be represented in every mainstream political party in Scotland and across the UK… The days where the South Asian community gets to lead political parties and gets to lead countries is now upon us.
The Labour lot were quick to jump on the footage, accusing Reform UK of ‘blatant racism’ for questioning the party leader’s ‘identity, loyalty and belonging’ to Scotland. Sarwar himself has slammed the advert as a ‘very deliberate dog whistle’, adding: ‘I’m a proud Scot, I was born here, my kids were born here. Every single day, I fight for a better Scotland, regardless of what anyone’s politics might be.’ Even the SNP has taken Sarwar’s side in the furore. First Minister John Swinney has agreed with his Labour opponent that the ad is ‘blatantly racist’, with the Scottish government’s social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Sommerville remarking of the Reform leader: ‘I think what Nigel Farage intends to do – as he does every day – is be exceptionally divisive.’ Shots fired!
Reform’s by-election candidate Ross Lambie told the Beeb’s Good Morning Scotland this morning that the ad was ‘absolutely not racist’, adding that his party wasn’t interested in trying to ‘foist various minority groups into positions’. For his part, Farage has defended the Facebook video. Speaking in London today, the Clacton MP said:
So it was Anas Sarwar that introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics. Making it perfectly clear his priority was to a certain section of the community. All we’ve done is to put out the exact words spoken by him without any comment, we’ve said nothing, just that we will represent the people of that constituency. And the fact that they have chosen to go down the sectarian route, choose to throw accusations back at us, says to me that we are winning.
Talk about pulling no punches, eh? Sarwar has since accused Farage of attempting to ‘try and get poison into our politics in Scotland’, adding spikily: ‘He is a spiv, he is a divisive politician, someone who wants to bring fear into our politics. He probably couldn’t pin many parts of Scotland on a map.’ Ouch. The gloves are coming off…
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