Voters in Glasgow will tell convicted racist Jayda Fransen "where to go" at May's Holyrood election, Anas Sarwar has predicted.
The Scottish Labour leader said today he had "no fear" in standing up to members of the far-right as their previous efforts to cause disunity in the south of the city had always failed.
Fransen, a former deputy leader of the fascist Britain First movement, will stand as an independent i n the Glasgow Southside constituency being contested by both Nicola Sturgeon and Sarwar in five week's time.
The Record first revealed in January her bizarre plan to stand for election, when she said in a statement: “I am going to be standing in the Scottish elections in May against these SNP commie, Marxists, naughty people.”
She will be hoping to attract more votes than the 56 she received in the 2014 Rochester and Strood by-election, when she was outpolled by the Monster Raving Loony Party.
Speaking at a media briefing today, Sarwar said Fransen's candidacy was a reminder that all mainstream parties should redouble their efforts to take on the far-right.
"We've had far-right fascists come to the southside of Glasgow before," he said. "They tried to stand when I was a candidate in 2010 and they stood when I was a candidate in 2015
"They've stood in elections even when my father was standing back in 1997. And in 2005 they came and tried to cause mischief after the tragic murder of Kris Donald.
"Every single time the far-right has come to stand for election, and to try and divide our communities in the southside, the people of Glasgow have always told them where to go.
"I have no fear and I have no worry about it at all. I know the message the people of Glasgow will send them again.
"I would say it shows we have to redouble our efforts to take on the far-right, and all those who seek to divide us.
"I'm sure on this issue, and on lots of other issues which refer to prejudice, all political parties would be ready to work as one."
He added: "I have no doubt with this individual, who I have never met, Nicola Sturgeon and I will give her the kind of welcome she deserves in the southside of Glasgow."
Fransen helped form the British Freedom Party last year but it failed to gather momentum.
The 34-year-old claims she is a “Christian fundamentalist” and “extremist in every sense of the word”.
She has said Islam and the Koran should be banned in Britain and anti-monarchists should be hanged for treason. After one of Britain First’s “Christian patrols”, in Luton in November 2016, Fransen was convicted of religiously aggravated harassment and ordered to pay a fine of £1000 after she targeted a Muslim mother of four who was wearing a hijab.
In 2018, Fransen was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison after being found guilty at Folkestone magistrates’ court of three counts of religiously aggravated harassment.
