spouts racist rhetoric in a “disgusting” bid to bolster support, the MSP leading the fight against Islamophobia has claimed.
Labour’s Anas Sarwar told the Daily Record that the prospect of Johnson becoming prime minister would “normalise” anti-Muslim prejudice and stoke division.
Johnson, who is odds on to move into No10 in a fortnight, sparked a racism row last year after claiming women wearing the burka “look like bank robbers”.
Sarwar last year set up Holyrood’s cross-party group on Islamophobia and won plaudits for his campaign against bigotry.
He said: “When you have what looks set to be the most senior politician in the country causally throwing out Islamophobic remarks in order to get a reaction and build a support base, it naturalises Islamophobia.”
The Glasgow MSP compared Johnson with Donald Trump and Nigel Farage and accused them of “throwing out” statements about minority communities “to make them seem like they’re the enemy in order to mask the real issues and try to drive up support.
“It is completely disgusting and a really bad thing for our politics.”
Asked if he thinks Johnson is racist, Sarwar, a former deputy leader of Scottish Labour, replied: “I think he has certainly uses racist and Islamophobic language.
“That has fed the normalisation of racist and Islamophobic language. It has emboldened racists, it has emboldened the far right, it’s only futher emphasised the divisions that people seek to create in our communities.
“Johnson says those things because he wants a reaction, he wants to use it for political ends.
“I’m not sure he believes in it, I’m not sure that he believes in anything.”
Johnson was approached for comment but did not respond.
