Far-right figures like Tommy Robinson 'not welcome in Glasgow', says council leader

Council leader Susan Aitken has said far-right figures like Tommy Robinson are not welcome in Glasgow, as she called for a “celebration of this diverse, multicultural city” in George Square on Saturday.

Anti-racism campaigners have organised a counter-protest in response to a scheduled anti-immigration rally in the city.

It has been planned by Stand Up to Racism Scotland in coalition with trade unions and refugee rights organisations.

Ahead of a council meeting next week where she will present a motion condemning the far-right, Cllr Aitken said: “I think it’s very important that elected leaders use their voices to provide not just reassurance but solidarity for the folk who have been targeted by far-right ideologues and criminals and thugs.

“To make it loud and clear that I, as leader of the city, are on your side, not theirs. I reject what they stand for.”

The council leader plans to join Stand Up To Racism in George Square. “I want tomorrow at George Square to be a celebration of this diverse, multicultural city,” she said.

Her motion asks the council to declare “its solidarity with Glasgow’s global majority and migrant communities” and “deeply regrets the climate of fear and vulnerability that has been created”.

It goes on to condemn “race hate in all its forms; unequivocally rejects far-right rhetoric and activity; and agrees that far-right ringleaders such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, are not welcome in Glasgow”.

The motion adds inward migration to the UK is “not only positive but necessary and that policies which have set out to discourage people coming to live and work in the UK, such as Brexit and the so-called hostile environment, have been deeply damaging to both the national economy and to social cohesion”.

It will be debated by councillors on Thursday during a full council meeting.

Speaking on Friday, Cllr Aitken said: “In recent years in UK politics particularly, there has been rhetoric around immigration, asylum seekers and refugees which has helped to fuel some of what we’ve seen in the past few weeks.

“I believe that Glasgow being an asylum dispersal city, a city of migrants for centuries now, is a positive thing. It has made us the city that we are.

“It makes us this great, vibrant, metropolitan, beating heart of a city. It is to be celebrated. It is not to be talked about as a problem or something we have to manage.”