A REFORM UK councillor who shared a stage with neo-Nazis at a Glasgow demonstration that descended into racist violence has broken her silence.
Audrey Dempsey, a Glasgow councillor who defected to Reform after being suspended from Labour amid a racism row, had been urged to address why she had spoken at the rally on Saturday organised by the Unite The Clans anti-immigration group.
A poster advertising the event had listed Dempsey as a speaker alongside Josh Fernie, an organiser for the neo-Nazi Homeland Party, and Richard McFarlane, from the far-right Patriotic Alternative, alongside other far-right figures.
In 2024, Dempsey faced questions after “liking” social media posts talking up the Homeland Party , and she said at the time that her “honest defence” was she did not know who the neo-Nazi group were.
Questioned on why she had now shared a stage with one of their organisers, Dempsey claimed that she had seen “nobody even remotely resembling a Nazi” at the rally on Glasgow Green on Saturday, despite numerous images of protesters there throwing Nazi salutes.
Hi @ThomasKerrMSP - your Reform colleague @CllrDempsey was a headline speaker alongside Nazis at what turned into a race riot today. People were targeted with violence because they weren’t white, Glaswegians had to shut their shops and shelter for being brown. Are you ashamed? https://t.co/S2qMqBevuN
— Cllr Blair Anderson (@blairanderson35) July 25, 2026
Scottish Green councillor Blair Anderson had called for answers from Reform after resharing a video from The National showing “far-right demonstrators throw bottles and pieces of wood at police officers in Glasgow”.
He wrote: “Hi [Reform UK Scottish deputy leader Thomas Kerr] – your Reform colleague [Councillor Audrey Dempsey] was a headline speaker alongside Nazis at what turned into a race riot today.
“People were targeted with violence because they weren’t white, Glaswegians had to shut their shops and shelter for being brown. Are you ashamed?”
Kerr did not respond, and nor did Reform UK when asked whether they were happy for Dempsey to share a stage with fascists.
However, Dempsey responded directly to Anderson on social media, saying that she “attended to speak about one thing: the safety of women and girls”.
She went on: “I would take that message to anyone willing to listen because protecting women and girls should never depend on political affiliation.
“I saw nobody even remotely resembling a Nazi. If you have evidence that specific individuals committed criminal offences, then the police should deal with those individuals accordingly. That’s how the rule of law works.”
Police made some 15 arrests at the demonstration on Saturday, including for possession of an offensive weapon, assault, breach of the peace, obstruction, and resisting arrest.
Dempsey went on: “What I won’t do is apologise for speaking up for women and girls because it’s politically inconvenient for you.
“Frankly, throwing around words like ‘Nazi’ at anyone you disagree with has become so predictable that they’ve almost lost all meaning. It might get you a few likes on X, but it does nothing to make a single woman safer.
“So no, I’m not ashamed. I’m proud to stand up for women and girls. Perhaps you should spend less time attacking me and more time asking why so many women no longer feel safe in our city.”
Multiple Nazi salutes at the ‘Unite the Clans’ racist & fascist rally in Glasgow yesterday. They deny they are racist as majority of society abhors it. They masquerade as ‘protectors of women’, but only use concerns over women’s safety to scapegoat& build their fascist movement. pic.twitter.com/mUhNHLWP30
— Stand Up to Racism - Scotland (@SUTRScotland) July 26, 2026
Responding, Anderson shared an image of multiple men throwing Nazi salutes at the Glasgow rally and wrote: “They look an awful lot like Nazis to me. I don’t doubt your sincerity around the issue of violence against women and girls.
“So I can’t understand why you shared a platform with convicted domestic abuser John Watt and Hitler-admirer StillBuilt who thinks women shouldn’t vote.”
Over the weekend, a new group calling themselves “Alba Defensor” held a separate protest outside the Daily Record offices in Glasgow in which around 60-80 black-shirted men arranged into a fascist-style drill square.
Professor Thomas Weber, an expert in the rise of fascism in Europe at the University of Aberdeen, told The National that the group had “eerie echoes” of the early stages of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power .
