REFORM MSPs have reacted with outrage after being accused of using the “language of the Third Reich”.
Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton drew comparisons between the rhetoric deployed by Nigel Farage’s Scottish representatives and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany during a debate in the Holyrood chamber on Wednesday.
He said that Malcolm Offord, the leader of Reform UK in Scotland “often talks in the same breath about the idea of cohesion and then talks about ‘strangers’, ‘fighting age men’, ‘our people’”.
He went on: “I reflect, and I make no causal link between this and the attacks in Edinburgh on the weekend, but we did hear that half-naked man wielding an axe shouting about ‘protecting our country’.
“Let that sink in. Because language of displacement of othering is the antithesis of the cohesion that Lord Offord speaks about so regularly.”
Last Friday, a white man was arrested after allegedly wounding five people in terror-linked attacks in Edinburgh. Video shared online seemed to show the suspect shouting about “protecting the country from these fucking Muslim bastards”.
After Cole-Hamilton linked the attacks to Reform UK’s rhetoric, party MSP Amanda Bland intervened.
She said: “Just interesting, hearing about language, and I agree with you – we need to be really careful with the language that we use in this parliament.
“Referring to other parties as ‘they disgust me’ and individuals as ‘Jack in the Box’, would you agree that that is inappropriate?”
Cole-Hamilton then responded: “I really fail to see a moral equivalence between the references we've just heard and what is effectively the language of the Third Reich, in some cases.”
The comparison to Hitler’s Nazis drew consternation among the Reform benches, with party MSP Duncan Massey raising a point of order.
“That language is unacceptable, presiding officer,” Massey said.
Deputy presiding officer Katy Clark then said: “As the standing orders make clear, it is a matter of whether a comment is in relation to an individual or whether it is a point of debate, and the point was not specifically aimed at an individual.”
Retaking the floor, Cole-Hamilton doubled-down. “When you talk about displacement and othering, that is the language of the Third Reich,” he said.
“I meant no inference that there was any suggestion or implication that Reform adopt the policies of the Third Reich, but we've got to be very careful when we talk about displacement, replacement theory, and othering, which is happening on a widespread basis as the Overton Window has shifted.
“I apologise if people have taken offence to that.”
Labour MSP Daniel Johnson, who earlier in the Holyrood debate had also linked Reform UK’s language to the attacks in Edinburgh, then asked the LibDem leader: “I wonder if you might agree with me that while parties or individuals may not be fascist, they do need to think about whether they might be enabling those that absolutely do proclaim and explicitly pursue fascism.”
Cole Hamilton said: “I absolutely agree. The struggle for progress and equality is never truly won. We have to win it with every generation.
“We see in the rhetoric the measure of the challenge that falls to our generation.”
Johnson had earlier accused Reform UK depute leader Thomas Kerr of laughing at mention of the Islamophobic stabbings in Edinburgh.
Offord, Kerr’s leader, responded: "I say to the member, the only incitement going on is coming from him as he raises his voice in this manner. I said on the record, I said on the record last week, I said on the record last week, I say it again now: violence is never an answer to any problem.
"I will say it again, violence is never the answer to any problem – but that is not to ignore the problem, and we need cohesive society, and right now we do not have that, and Reform is for cohesion in our communities."
