Greens accuse Reform UK of planning 'concentration camps' in Scotland

Ross Greer, the party’s co-leader, said the plans were “evil” and “genuinely wicked”.

However, challenged on his language, he drew a distinction between Nazi-era “death camps” and what constitutes a concentration camp.

It comes after Reform said Scottish immigration detention centres would be set up in seats that elect a Green MSP if Mr Farage’s party wins power at Westminster.

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On Sunday, home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf announced that a Reform UK government at Westminster would not build immigration detention centres in seats held by the party’s MPs, or where they were in control of the local authority.

Instead, Mr Yusuf said Green voters will “get what they vote for” as part of Reform’s push for mass deportations.

Asked for clarity on how this policy would work north of the Border if, as polls suggest, Mr Farage becomes prime minister, Reform councillor Thomas Kerr said the detention centres would be built in constituencies that elect Green MSPs, and areas that elect a Reform constituency MSP would be exempted.

“Ross Greer and his army of crackpots’ pursuit of open borders, which would allow swathes of foreign criminals to enter Scotland unchecked, is not only economically reckless but a danger to national security,” Mr Kerr said.

The Greens are hopeful of winning Edinburgh Central at the Holyrood election on Thursday, and are also thought to be in contention in Glasgow Southside.

Asked what he made of Reform’s plans, Mr Greer said: “Reform are openly threatening voters, whether it’s Edinburgh Central, Glasgow Southside, or people who intend on voting Green either on the regional list here in Scotland or down south in the English council elections.

“This is Donald Trump-style politics. Donald Trump is the kind of guy who threatens people who vote for his political opponents, tries to punish them.

“I don’t think voters across Scotland are going to take kindly to being threatened by Nigel Farage like this. We are proud of the fact that the Greens are standing on a platform of offering solidarity and sanctuary to those who need it.

“We’re very clear that where people have come into our communities, either as immigrants or asylum seekers, they should be housed in actual housing, not kept essentially locked up in these hotels, or as Reform are proposing, actual concentration camps.

“They are talking about migrant detention camps. The other word for that is a concentration camp.”

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Challenged on his use of the phrase “concentration camps”, Mr Greer said: “A concentration camp is by definition a camp where you concentrate and detain a group of people. They’ve said detention camps.”

He added: “There’s a difference between a concentration camp and what you’re alluding to, I presume, which is a death camp, an extermination camp. Clearly, those are different things.

“By definition, these are concentration camps. Remember, Britain invented concentration camps. Britain invented concentration camps during the Boer War.

“What Reform is proposing is a concentration camp - a camp where you detain and concentrate a group of people. That is evil. That is genuinely wicked politics, especially to do it in an area where people voted in a way that Reform and Nigel Farage don’t like.

“But that is exactly what they are proposing, and they need to own that.”

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Ross Greer and the Greens wants to abolish prisons, legalise drugs and open borders.

“Legal heroin and murderers roaming the streets – voters will certainly reject that.”

Speaking to The Scotsman during a campaign visit to Larkhall in South Lanarkshire, Malcolm Offord, the leader of Reform UK in Scotland, said the planned detention centres were “not like concentration camps”.

He said: "The difference is that... a camp where you are given humane accommodation, where you are given medical treatment, where you are assessed and looked after humanely, is a place where you are able to process people who come here illegally. It's a long way different from a concentration camp."

Lord Offord said it was necessary to “reflect democracy”, adding: “People haven’t actually voted in this country on this level of immigration and so this is a democratic way of finding out which communities wish to welcome those people and which don’t.”

He said: “Within each of those constituencies there will be a places that can be identified to do this in a civilised, humane way, but that’s what they vote for, it’s reasonable they should have a higher percentage.”

Mr Kerr said: “Ross Greer and his merry band of crackpots constantly tell us how loving and warm these illegals are – so I’m confused as to why he now believes we are attempting to ‘intimate’ voters?

“Could it be that Mr Greer is the classic wishy washy wokey lefty that preaches do as I say, not as I do?

“Scotland’s forgotten working-class communities have been dumping grounds for extremist policies championed by the Greens for too long. That changes with Reform. If you vote Green, you need to live with the consequences.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused Reform of being “a bunch of cranks and rejects”.

“These are not serious people,” he said. “These are not serious ideas. This is a group of cranks who are trying to find attention in this election campaign to try and further divide Scot from Scot, and the best thing that Scots can do is reject their poison.”