Glasgow city leader Susan Aitken accuses 'toxic' Reform, asks other Scottish councils to take more refugees

Councillor Susan Aitken claimed representatives of a certain political party had been spreading “toxic and racist lies”.

It is understood Cllr Aitken was referring to the Reform party, although she did not name them directly as she introduced her motion. The city’s Reform councillors accused the council leader of “attacking Glasgwegians who disagree with her views”.

A former Carntyne care home was vandalised after unsubstantiated rumours spread that it would be used to house asylum speakers. There have also been reports of videos circulating online spreading disinformation in the city.

Ms Aitken lodged a motion at a council meeting on Thursday describing it as “disgusting to suggest asylum seekers and refugees pose a threat to women and children through sexual crimes”.

Her comments come as she called for other councils to share the responsibility of housing refugees, with Glasgow being home to 90 per cent of people settling in Scotland.

Speaking at Thursday’s full Glasgow City Council meeting, Cllr Aitken said: “I want to say this very clearly – asylum seekers and refugees are welcome in Glasgow.

“They have been part of our communities for well over 20 years even before we were officially an asylum dispersal authority.”

Claiming tensions and fears were being stoked, the SNP senior politician said: “Representatives of the most far-right party to ever enter the UK’s political mainstream are on social media, in our communities and in elected institutions, including this one, deliberately spreading toxic and racist lies and not caring what damage it causes or who it causes it to.”

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Cllr Aitken said residents were “vulnerable to disinformation just now”, citing how people’s living standards had fallen and the lack of enough housing in the city.

The council passed a unanimous motion to tackle disinformation and appeal to the Home Office, Mears and Police Scotland for help.

The motion called for a fairer distribution of responsibility for housing refugees among Scottish councils and more funds for affordable homes and the housing emergency.

More than 90 per cent of all refugees and displaced people who have settled in Scotland have made Glasgow their home. The city is in the grip of a housing emergency with long lists of people waiting for social homes.

New homelessness applications in the city in April numbered 645. At the start of May, there were 1,951 refugees in temporary accommodation.

Refugees account for 44 per cent of all homelessness applications, a recent Glasgow Integration Joint Board meeting heard.

In a motion, agreed by the whole council, Cllr Aitken condemned any politician “who seeks to target and scapegoat migrants as the cause of structural challenges within society, such as housing shortages”.

Reform councillors Thomas Kerr and Audrey Dempsey were at the meeting. Issuing a statement councillor, Cllr Kerr said, “Reform UK Councillors will take no part in Susan Aitken’s desperate attempt to attack Glaswegians who disagree with her view on illegal migration.”

Referring to high profile US conservative activist Charlie Kirk who was shot in the US this week, Cllr Kerr added: ”We saw ... in America, the consequences of politicians using phrases like ‘far-right’ and ‘fascist’ to describe those they disagree with. The reality is the fight facing Glasgow is not between left and right, it’s between right and wrong.”

Among other measures, the agreed motion calls on “both Scottish and UK governments, working with [council umbrella body] Cosla, to develop a national dispersal strategy so that responsibility for asylum and refugee support is shared fairly across the country and not concentrated in Glasgow”.