Labour Scotland MP on the 'wake-up call' for politicians over 'aggressive racism' shown in 'far right' riots

Glasgow South West MP Dr Zubir Ahmed said Westminster politicians had a “responsibility” when discussing issues of immigration and that it was possible to do so without using phrases that could be “manipulated” by bad actors. His comments come following a week in which far-right protests, as well as counter demonstrations, have taken place across England and Northern Ireland.

Dr Ahmed also suggested social media sites needed more regulation, following X owner Elon Musk posting a series of fake headlines while criticising Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Mr Musk has been accused by former first minister Humza Yousaf of amplifying “far-right neo Nazi conspiracy theories”. The billionaire has also this week been called “deeply irresponsible” by UK justice secretary Heidi Alexander for posting that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK, and reposting an image of a fake news headline about the country’s response to riots.

Dr Ahmed - the oldest of five children to Pakistani parents and the winner of one of Scotland's tightest marginals at the general election - called for politicians and the media to consider their own language.

It is understood Labour MPs were advised this week not to encourage attendance at counter-protests and to "think" before they tweeted, but the party has reiterated that was the normal advice. Another Labour MP explained the new intake had received extensive social media training as candidates, so would not need reminders.

No such advice was given to SNP MPs, but First Minister John Swinney on Friday wrote to social media companies, including X, TikTok and Meta, telling them they must take action to crack down on disinformation and racism.

Dr Ahmed, who worked as a transplant surgeon prior to be elected, said: “I think you all have a responsibility when you're in a position of both power and in the public light, to be very, very careful about the words that you use. Because it may not be your intention, but I think you have to factor into the phraseology that you use that it can be manipulated by bad actors.

“I am very, very open to having all kinds of discussions and debates about immigration, about whether the numbers are right, what kinds of people are coming in. That's totally fine and we should be having those discussions.

“But the idea that’s what these race riots are about is rather simplistic and monosynaptic. This is about the upheaval people are feeling in their communities, a disconnect they're feeling from the wider world because they feel like they've been left behind.

“Unfortunately, some bad actors have manipulated those feelings of dissatisfaction and steered them towards this kind of behaviour.”

Asked whom he considered to be responsible, the new MP - a Muslim who won his seat with a 3,285 majority - pointed to the “right of politics”, as well as academics who spoke out only on issues of migration.

He said: “I think a lot of the right of politics, many of them have recently been in the Cabinet, and are responsible for that, taking the simplistic, easy way out, simply for populist purposes.

“The saddest thing about that is that they've steered the populations they're supposedly espoused to care about completely down a dead end, both politically and philosophically, but much more importantly, in terms of their living standards and their prospects for the future.

“There are some people out there, they call themselves so-called academics and political scientists that I think that basically sacrificed their academia at this bonfire of primitive prejudicial language, simply to get clicks, appearances and widen their media appeal. You know, I think that's sad.

“I think the media certainly needs to challenge them more than they're doing and this is all media, by the way.”

Asked about his personal reaction to the riots, Dr Ahmed expressed “sadness”, explaining it had been a “wake-up call”.

He said: “What we’ve been seeing these last few weeks is just pure unadulterated naked racism, where people are repulsed by people of colour. They have found themselves a little portal and licence to go out in a nakedly racist way that perhaps I thought wasn't possible in this country anymore.

“That’s what worries me. It’s not about me being a Muslim, or someone being a Hindu, Sikh or Christian or whatever. They're not actually fighting against that. What they're fighting against when it comes down to the core of what they hate is people that are not of their colour. And that's a bit of a wake-up call for me, that this naked level of aggressive racism still exists in our country.”

Dr Ahmed spoke to The Scotsman after Wednesday night where many big far-right rallies failed to materialise, with instead cities flooded with anti-facists taking to the streets in solidarity.

Citing this as a source for hope, he said: “You saw the manifestation of the actual British people, who have shown themselves to be completely and utterly disconnected from this rhetoric on the far right and coming out to actively, and stand up and vocally, stand up against it.”

Calling out those who had been involved in the far-right rallies, Dr Ahmed insisted this was not about concerns over immigration.

“You can talk about anti-immigration but that isn’t what this is about, because if you look at the people, they targeted black people in cars, Muslim women, people of colour in the NHS, and they weren't asking them what religion they were or what their nationality was - they just assumed because they were a person of colour they don’t belong in this country,” he said.

“I had Australian friends, Ukrainian friends, saying to me ‘you know what, it's so sad because I'm an immigrant and I don't get any hassle’. So it was about race baiting, ultimately, and that’s where I think the rule of law and our legal frameworks are quite clear.”

Dr Ahmed also criticised X and suggested more needed to be done to combat disinformation on social media.

“Once that heat is removed and we reflect in the cold light of day, I think we have to think about how we interact with this platform,” he said. “Because it's obviously not a place now where as a politician or a parliamentarian, you can engage in any kind of political discourse, never mind nuanced. I am questioning whether I am on something that is dangerous for my country.

“There needs to be some kind of regulatory function. When you talk about regulation of these spaces, people say you are against free speech, but it’s not free speech is it, because Elon Musk has hundreds of millions of followers and there algorithmically, his words are weighted more greatly than your words or my words.”

Dr Ahmed criticised Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick, who had called for people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ to be arrested. The Arabic phrase means ‘God is great’.

“He [Jenrick] has seamlessly leaned into some of the issues that have perhaps led to some of the unrest in this country,” Dr Ahmed said. “Only he knows whether he did it deliberately or not, to appeal to a certain section of the Conservative membership. But he is one of those people that is wise enough to know what words he is choosing and why he's choosing them.

“To do that and then simply offer a qualification rather than apology, I think reflects poorly on him and is not the words of someone that is aspiring to be the leader of Her Majesty's opposition.”