The Scottish Labour Leader roasted Reform UK on Question Time last night, saying he wants Nigel Farage’s party to get “absolutely pumped” at next month’s Holyrood election.

Anas Sarwar also dismissed claims that he had ever agreed to do a deal with Reform UK to oust the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Speaking on BBC Question Time yesterday, Sarwar said it was “nonsense” to suggest that he would work with Reform after the party spent thousands of pounds on adverts questioning his loyalty to Scotland last May. 

He said to the SNP Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan, “To think that a political party that has targeted me and my family in a very personal way, are somehow the same people that I am in secret cahoots with, I think actually you should look in a moral mirror.”

This comes after Reform alleged that Sarwar had said on three occasions that he would be willing to make a pact with the hard-right party in order to get the SNP out.

Sarwar then tore into Reform UK: “There are lots of families right now that are fearful of the prospect of Reform politics and Reform being anywhere near politics.”

To applause from the audience, he said that “for all those families” he wanted Scotland to “utterly reject” Lord Malcolm Offord and Reform at the upcoming Holyrood elections on 7 May.

On the last Question Time show Offord and Sarwar appeared on last December, the Reform leader in Scotland alleged that the Scottish Labour leader had spoken to him about working with Reform to “get the SNP out”.

The host of Question Time, Fiona Bruce, pressed Sarwar on this. 

Sarwar responded: “The idea that a Question Time green room, with six political parties, all the Question Time staff, is the place to have secret talks with Lord Malcolm Offord, who spent tens of thousands of pounds, his party, targeting me, saying I’m not even loyal to my own country Scotland, is utter nonsense.

To laughs from the Question Time audience, he said: “Let’s make it really clear, I want Reform to get absolutely pumped in this election”.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Anas Sarwar roasts Reform UK on Question Time appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Malcolm Offord, the Scottish Reform leader has admitted that some of Nigel Farage’s language on immigration made him “uncomfortable”.

Referring to a video in which Farage said that nearly one in three pupils speak English as a second language and claimed there had been a “cultural smashing of Glasgow”, Offord said he had felt “uncomfortable and squeamish”.

Offord told the BBC’s Scotcast podcast: “I was uncomfortable… I was a bit squeamish about that.”

“But I do agree with the sentiment that we’ve got an issue [and] that immigration is an issue in some of our communities, especially our working class communities.”

Farage was heavily criticised for comments he made about Glasgow schoolchildren in December last year. 

Keir Starmer said Farage was a “toxic divisive disgrace”, while Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “How dare [Farage] use Glasgow’s kids to spread his poison”. 

First minister John Swinney said: “I think Nigel Farage’s comments are quite simply racist. There’s no other way to describe them.”

Offord also said he had lost friends as a result of defecting from the Tories to Reform in December last year.

The former Tory peer said: “I’ve got a couple of people who have said to me: we just can’t support what the party stands for.”

“I feel that that is a sacrifice that I have to make if I believe in the cause of what I’m trying to do,” he added.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Scottish Reform leader admits Farage’s language on immigration made him ‘uncomfortable’ appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Reform’s leader in Scotland has admitted that disgraceful adverts questioning Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s loyalty to the country, which were condemned as racist, were a mistake.

Scottish Labour MP Kirst McNeill appeared on BBC Scotland during a question and answer session alongside Malcolm Offord, leader of Reform UK Scotland.

McNeill asked if Offord would finally like to condemn the ‘absolutely revolting, rancid Reform adverts that were put out about Anas Sarwar, questioning his loyalty to Scotland.

“Do you condemn them?”, she asked.

Reform’s social media advert  featuring Anas Sarwar was slammed last year as “blatantly racist”.

The online video posted ahead of a by-election in South Lanarkshire featured text which says: “Anas Sarwar has said he will prioritise the Pakistani community”.

Offord replied: “So there was a mistake made with that.”

We wonder if Farage will also have the backbone to not only admit it was a mistake but to apologise?

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

The post Reform leader admits disgraceful adverts about Anas Sarwar were a mistake appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.