OPINION

Reform lets its mask slip to reveal its true ugliness

Reform UK sparks cross-party outrage over racist ad falsely questioning Anas Sarwar’s loyalty to Scotland, in a divisive, race-baiting move widely condemned across the political spectrum.

Wee Ginger Dug

May 23, 2025 — 5 min read

R eaders of this column will know that I am not in the business of defending Anas Sarwar, the Scottish branch manager of the Labour Party. There is a multitude of reasons for legitimately criticising him, his frequent and many lies, his willingness to spin on a sixpence in order to justify the latest monstrous policy emanating from his bosses in London, his political opportunism, his hiding from accountability, and his unedifying sneering when challenged.

But what Anas Sarwar is categorically not is an anti-white racist. Making that allegation speaks volumes more about those making the allegation than it does about Anas Sarwar. It’s not as though there is any shortage of possible political attack lines you can use against him without making reference to his ethnic background. Everyone should unite in condemning this shameful and disgusting attack upon him.

Reform UK spent £7,000 on an advert on social media which falsely claimed that Anas Sarwar is only interested in promoting the Pakistani community in Scotland, an advert which was targeted at people in Hamilton and Larkhall.

Calling someone’s loyalty to Scotland into question on the basis of their race should have no place in modern Scotland, and certainly not in the independent Scotland that the overwhelming majority of supporters of Scottish independence seek to build. The loyalty to Scotland and Scottishness of Anas Sarwar is precisely the same as that of Ian Murray, Michael Shanks, Douglas Alexander, Blair McDougal or any other Labour politician, his family background has nothing to do with it.

There is a wealth of legitimate political ammunition to use against Anas Sarwar in the run up to a crucial by election, yet the Reform UK campaign team in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Holyrood by-election decided their go-to was to release a video which has been selectively edited in such a way as to imply that Anas Sarwar is only interested in promoting the Pakistani community in Scotland and then went on to claim that only Reform will prioritise the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. Reform UK would not dream of levelling a similar accusation against a white politician. Can you imagine them accusing Nigel Farage of disloyalty to the UK because his wife and children are German citizens? Doing so to Anas Sarwar can only be because there are deeply racist attitudes lurking not far below the surface of far too many in Reform UK.

They have revealed those attitudes by selectively editing their video in order to imply that Anas Sarwar will prioritise the interests of the Pakistani community over any other, and secondly by making his ethnicity the focus of their attack. Thirdly, they have revealed those racist attitudes by othering the Scottish Pakistani community and presenting it as an implied alien group whose interests are antithetical to and in conflict with the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, whom Reform presents as a white monolith. Scots from a Pakistani background are the friends, colleagues, neighbours, and loved ones of the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, an area with a Scots-Pakistani community of its own.

In fact, nowhere in the video did Anas Sarwar say he wanted to prioritise the Pakistani community. That’s a race-baiting lie from Reform UK. Their advert is blatantly racist. We can disagree profoundly with Anas Sarwar on many issues, but no one should condone or support the gutter politics of Reform UK, seeking to imply that an individual’s loyalty to the land of their birth can be questioned because they come from a minority ethnic background. If this is the nasty and racially exclusive country that Reform UK seeks to build, it’s all the more reason to ensure that they are given a serious electoral kicking on June 5 at the Holyrood by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and again next year in May at the Scottish Parliament elections.

Former First Minister Humza Yousaf was also a victim of similar racist attacks. The far-right selectively edited a video of the former First Minister, before he became the leader of the SNP, pointing out the lack of minority ethnic representation in positions of authority in Scotland and contorted it into the lie that Humza Yousaf is an anti-white racist. This is a hoary old tactic from the right, to take the words of a member of a minority community highlighting the challenges and discrimination that community faces and to twist it around in order to make out that it’s the minority person who is racist or bigoted.

Claiming to be the real victim is a technique used to defend and entrench existing privilege. People of colour who call out racism find themselves accused of anti-white racism, members of the LGBT community who call out homophobia or transphobia get accused of misogyny or attacking the traditional family.

Reform tries to present itself as a mainstream political party and firmly rejects the claim that it’s a far-right party, many of whose members are motivated by racism, despite the fact that its members and candidates are constantly being found to have liked or shared racist content online. With this nasty advert spewing the politics of the racist sewer on a Scottish by-election, Reform’s mask has well and truly slipped.

It’s to the credit of most of Scotland’s parties that they recognise that some things transcend party politics, and a racially motivated attack ad on the leader of one of the largest parties in the Scottish Parliament is one of those things. Labour, the SNP, the Scottish Greens, and the Lib Dems have all spoken out in condemnation of Reform’s racist advert.

The one party other than Reform itself which has not spoken out in condemnation of this vile advert is the Scottish Conservatives, who themselves have gone pretty far down the rabbit hole of far-right populism, which is ironic given how unpopular it has made them.

I hope decent Labour supporters in the constituency see what Reform is trying to do to Scottish politics and show their revulsion by voting tactically for the SNP to give Reform an electoral kicking and teach them that if they want to engage in gutter politics, they can lie in the gutter by themselves.