Asylum hotel protests ‘racist’, says Swinney

Protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers are racist, Scotland’s First Minister has said.

In recent months, hundreds of people have assembled outside hotels to voice their opposition to the housing of asylum seekers, with some carrying banners calling for the deaths of those crossing the English Channel on small boats.

John Swinney marched through Glasgow with the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) alongside other political leaders on Saturday before speaking at a rally decrying racism and the far-right.

Speaking to the Press Association after the rally during a visit to the group Glasgow Afghan United in the Maryhill area of the city, the First Minister said: “Many of the people who are participating in these protests against the asylum seeker hotels are people who are spreading racist hate in our country.

“So yes, there are people in there who are doing exactly that, and that’s why that’s got to be confronted and why people in Scotland can rely on their First Minister to do exactly that.”

Asked if the protests themselves were racist, the First Minister said: “Yes they are.

“They are expressing hostility towards individuals and it is important that we confront that sentiment.”

Mr Swinney was joined by Labour leader Anas Sarwar and independent Falkirk councillor Laura Murtagh, who has opposed the protests in her town and called for exclusion zones to be set up around the hotels to push protests away.

The First Minister refused to commit such a move, but said “detailed consideration” would be needed.

Addressing the trade union rally, the First Minister said those counter-protesting outside asylum hotels were expressing “the true values of Scotland”.

While Mr Sarwar told attendees at the rally that countering racism and prejudice was above party politics.

“John and I are going to have lots of arguments over the next six months,” he said.

“But there is one thing that I know that I will always stand shoulder to shoulder with him on and he will always stand shoulder to shoulder with me on, because some things are bigger that party politics in Scotland and that is challenging prejudice and hate.”

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “St Andrew’s Day belongs to us all. Today we’ve shown that when working people unite together, we speak in one voice against hatred and division.”

She added: “Scotland is a welcoming country. Today we stood together to prove that.”