“In fact, I think it’s only the third time he’s visited here in six years and what he did when he came here was expose how pathetic an individual he is.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has hit out at Reform’s Nigel Farage, calling him a ‘pathetic, poisonous little man’, who doesn’t care about Scotland and who ‘wants to play on people’s fears and hopelessness’.
Farage has recently been in Scotland ahead of a crucial by-election due to take place this Thursday in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, following the death of the SNP’s Christina McKelvie.
Reform have been busy downplaying their chances of winning the seat, but are nonetheless trying to do as well as they can, and hope to be the main opposition to the SNP in Holyrood.
The far-right party has been accused of launching a “blatantly racist” social media advert featuring the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. In a sign of how desperate Reform UK have become and the kinds of dirty tactics they’re willing to resort to ahead of the by-election, the party featured an ad on its Facebook page which Sarwar has slammed as a ‘very deliberate dog whistle’ after it claimed that he would ‘prioritise the Pakistani community’.
The ad, features footage of several speeches made by Sarwar, born in Glasgow to Pakistani Muslim parents, talking about political representation for South Asian communities and encouraging more people from Pakistani and South Asian backgrounds to get involved in politics.
The edited clip, which shows Mr Sarwar’s comments beginning mid-sentence, is preceded by the words “Anas Sarwar has said he will prioritise the Pakistani community”.
Yesterday, Farage clashed with a journalist after falsely claiming that the Scottish Labour leader said South Asians are going to “take over the world”.
BBC Scotland journalist James Cook said: “These people shouting outside say that you’re a racist, will you reassure them you’re not by apologising to the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar for claiming that he would prioritise, prioritise the Pakistani community, when you must know that he literally said no such thing.”
Farage refused to apologise, instead doubling down on his bigoted remarks.
Sarwar has said that Farage doesn’t care about Scotland and is only ‘in it for himself’.
He told PoliticsJOE: “Put bluntly, Nigel Farage is a pathetic, poisonous little man, who wants to try to bring his divisive politics into Scotland. This is a guy that doesn’t understand Scotland and doesn’t care about Scotland. He couldn’t give a damn about Scotland.
“In fact, I think it’s only the third time he’s visited here in six years and what he did when he came here was expose how pathetic an individual he is.”
Sarwar said that Farage wants to cut the money spent on Scotland’s NHS, while also continuing his ‘stupid and inaccurate racist assertions towards me’ and called him a liability.
He added: “He’s only in it for himself. He will say anything and do anything to get people’s support he wants to play on people’s sense of hopelessness and their fears rather than genuinely try to bring our country together or to change it.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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