TV debate bombshell as Labour leader accuses Reform hopeful of wanting to deport his children - Battle for Holyrood explodes over race hate claim during live TV debate
Anas Sarwar claimed a Reform UK candidate wanted to deport his children during explosive clashes in a televised leader’s debate.
The Scottish Labour leader launched a furious attack on Reform’s Scottish leader Lord Malcolm Offord during clashes about immigration in the Channel 4 debate.
Lord Offord responded by claiming Mr Sarwar has privately suggested working with his party to oust the SNP – which Mr Sarwar later said was a lie.
The clashes on immigration dominated the second live leader’s debate of the Holyrood election campaign, which was hosted by Channel 4 News in Glasgow.
Mr Sarwar, who admitted the immigration system is ‘broken’ and needs to be fixed, said that Lord Offord is raising concerns about the issue to cause division, and condemned John Swinney for claiming Labour would do a secret deal with Reform.
Speaking directly to Lord Offord, he said: ‘He says they are not a racist party. One of his candidates wants to deport my children. Where do you want them to go, Malcolm?
‘One of your candidates wants my children deported, where do you want us to go? How dare you use that as a cover for politics. Where do you want my kids to go?’
Lord Offord responded: ‘Anas, this is the third time on national TV that you have called me a racist.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar claimed a Reform UK candidate wants to deport his children
Reform’s Scottish leader Lord Malcolm Offord clashed with Sarwar over immigration
‘This does not square with you coming bouncing up to me at the start of this campaign and basically saying we need to work together - Reform and Labour - to remove the SNP.’
Mr Sarwar said: ‘Let’s remember those racist ads, lets talk about you wanting to deport my children. Don’t you try to jump on this and try and play politics. This is a morale issue. Where do you want my children to go Malcolm, with one of your candidates saying they should be deported.’
Lord Offord said: ‘There is no prospect of you or your family or children being deported.’
Mr Sarwar’s comments referred to Senga Beresford, Reform’s candidate for Galloway and West Dumfries, who replied “Me” to a post on the social media from the deputy leader of the Britain First party which said: ‘In the UK Muslims are demanding that sharia law is implemented. I demand that we deport the lot of them. Who’s with me?’
In the media spin room after the debate, Mr Sarwar said Lord Offord’s claims he wanted to do a deal with Reform was ‘utter nonsense’ and ‘an absolute lie’.
Lord Offord alleges that the conversation where Mr Sarwar suggested a deal happened backstage during a BBC Question Time programme in Paisley Town Hall on December 11, days after he joined Reform.
He told journalists: ‘I walked into that green room and Anas, very friendly, came bouncing over and said to me “you guys are going to do very well in the election, you are going to win a lot of seats, we need to talk about how we are going to work together to get rid of the Nats”. I’m not making it up.’
Reform councillor Thomas Kerr also claimed there was a separate occasion on Remembrance Sunday when Mr Sarwar said to him they should work together to get rid of the SNP. He said: ‘The question genuinely for people in Scotland here is Anas Sarwar stands for nothing bar Anas Sarwar. This is a vacuous man who has no principles, who will say anything publicly and a different thing privately.
‘And I think genuinely people in Scotland have to ask themselves is that someone they trust to be First Minister?’
During yesterday’s debate, SNP leader John Swinney said he does not agree with Donald Trump yesterday saying that the UK should ‘drill, baby drill’ in the North Sea.
The US President criticised ‘absolutely crazy’ UK Government policy on new drilling, and said that ‘Aberdeen should be booming’.
When asked if he agreed, Mr Swinney said: ‘I don’t agree with President Trump on “drill, baby drill”. I think we’ve got enormous challenges about energy but Scotland is an energy-rich country which is developing formidable renewable energy resources.’
He added that Scotland does not see the economic benefit of its energy wealth and said he wants ‘Scotland’s energy in Scotland’s hands’.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: ‘John Swinney is putting a big lie at the heart of his election campaign with some idea that independence will suddenly, magically reduce the bills of hard-working Scots who have seen their bills go up, but he has not produced a shred of evidence to support it.
‘What we support is a sensible energy mix and that starts with drilling for the oil and gas that we have in abundance in the North Sea.’
Mr Swinney went on to say that oil and gas will be used for 30-40 years and any developments ‘should be compatible with our journey to net zero’.
But Mr Findlay said in the spin room after the debate: ‘John Swinney is spinning more wildly than an offshore windmill on a windy day. He has got more faces than multiple townhall clocks on oil and gas.
‘He is playing a really sneaky game. He is trying to tell the oil and gas workers in the north east of Scotland that he is on their side and he vaguely now might support new drilling, when it is clearly the case that he is still sticking to Nicola Sturgeon’s opposition to new oil and gas.’
During last night’s debate, Lord Offord also directly asked Mr Swinney whether he thought Scotland would be safer and more secure if the UK was broken up. He replied: ‘I think Scotland would be safer.’
Mr Findlay said: ‘There is a very good reason that the disgusting Iranian regime supports Scottish independence. That’s because they know Scotland and the United Kingdom would be fundamentally weaker if John Swinney got his way.’
During clashes on independence, Lord Offord said he doesn’t believe that John Swinney is serious about another independence referendum.
