THE leader of Falkirk Council has slammed a Reform UK councillor’s interview where she referred to being "born and bred here" during a grilling on asylum hotel protests.
During an interview with STV News on Tuesday, Claire Mackie-Brown, a Reform UK councillor for Falkirk’s Upper Braes, was left red-faced while she was quizzed about a case of a white male rapist in the town.
Cllr Mackie-Brown claimed that she had “never heard” of the case even though Riley Kirk was jailed the same month as Sadeq Nikzad, whose case is seen as the catalyst of the recent protests in the town outside a hotel believed to house asylum seekers.
Mackie-Brown insisted that her political focus was on trying to unite the people in Falkirk, as she said she is trying her “hardest to bring community cohesion”.
She then added: “There is a true unrest and it is scary. It’s scary as a local resident, somebody who was born and bred here.”
Mackie-Brown was visibly embarrassed by what she said and turned away from the camera before saying “I shouldn’t have said that”.
Leader of Falkirk Council, the SNP’s Cecil Meiklejohn (below), said the interview clip “speaks for itself” and that Reform are only interested in power and will pit local communities against each other to achieve it.
“It clearly demonstrates Nigel Farage and Reform’s narrow political agenda, which aims to undermine community cohesion, and further exploit issues over immigration for cheap political gain,” Meiklejohn said.
“Farage, and Reform, are only interested in a Trump-style power grab, and they are willing to achieve it by any means necessary, including shamefully exploiting communities and their concerns.”
Following her comments, Mackie-Brown was asked if she could understand why people who aren’t from Scotland, but who have made the country their home are “annoyed when they hear an elective official say that people are born and bred here”.
To which the Reform councillor replied, “yeah”, with a visibly embarrassed face.
Mackie-Brown was elected in May 2022 as a Conservative, but resigned the following year and sat as an independent.
In March this year, she announced she had joined Reform UK.
The Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk has been the site of multiple anti-migrant protests over the last several months, but they have been met with hundreds of counter-demonstrators on each occasion.
Four people have been arrested following multiple protests outside the hotel, which is believed to be home to asylum seekers.
Anti-migrant protesters have been pictured making Nazi salutes along with holding flags reading “kill them all”.
Meanwhile, far-right agitators have also been pictured in attendance at the demonstrations organised by a group called Save Our Future and Our Kids Futures.
