Reform planning 'concentration camps' claims Scottish Green leader

Ross Greer was responding to Nigel Farage's party's plan that would see centres for asylum seekers built in constituencies which elect Green politicians.

The idea was mooted on Sunday by Reform's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf who said detention centres would not be built in seats held by his party’s MPs, or where they were in control of the local authority.

In Scotland, Reform councillor Thomas Kerr said the detention centres would be built in constituencies that elect Green MSPs, while areas that elect a Reform constituency MSP would be exempted.

Speaking to LBC today while campaigning in Edinburgh, Ross Greer said: "A concentration camp is by defnition a camp where you concentrate and detain a group of people. It was Britain that invented them over a century ago in the Boer War, and Reform is doing this to threaten voters.

"But what they're really doing is threatening to punish desperate vulnerable people. The Greens are proud that Scotland is a welcoming country and we show sanctuary and solidarity to people who need it, but the last thing we should do is have, whether immigrants or refugees, detained in camps. We should be giving asylum seekers the right to work."

He added: "Putting poeple in concentration camps is cruel and straight out of the Donald Trump playbook."

Asked if using the phrase "concentration camp" was too closely associated with WWII and the Holocaust, he said: "There's a difference between a concentraiton camp and an extermination camp.

"I am not one for making comparisons between Reform and the Nazis but they need to grapple with the fact that for weeks in this election they stood by a Welsh candidate who was photographed making Nazi salutes before they dropped him so they need to reflect on the fact they're attracting a lot of support from these really insidiuous, dangerous, far right individuals.

"But the Greens are clear, these are concentration camps. If other people want to conflate them with extermination camps that would be inccacurate. But Reform need to own the fact that concentration camps is what they're proposing.

"Scots will see through this, people here don't want to bullied, threatened by Nigel Farage. I think there will be a bigger backlash to this than to Lord Malcolm Offord and his six houses, five cars and six boats."

Later, Lord Offord, who leads Reform in Scotland, dismissed Mr Greer's comments.

He told LBC: "It's a complete misuse of language, there's no concept of concentration camps I completely reject that idea.

These are poeple who come here illegally, and need to be processed one way or the other, they shouldn't be here in the first place. We will always treat people humanely of course but these are people here illegally and need to be dealt with in a particular way."

Asked about the siting of such centres he said: "We need to look at existing assets and look at where we can do that. Certain people will have more appetite for those camps than others and the idea is if the Green constituencies wish to accommodate that, we should locate them more where they are wanted, where they have voted for that.

"And if they are the most expensive, most affluent areas, their councils are probably better funded, so they can pay more of the share. If affluent people want to have more of this [immigration] it's probably a fair way of allocating it."

And a Reform UK spokesperson said: “Ross Greer and the Greens wants to abolish prisons, legalise drugs and open borders. Legal heroin and murderers roaming the streets – voters will certainly reject that.”

Mr Greer also urged Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to reject Reform support in Holyrood should he be looking for votes to become First Minister.

He said: "If Anas Sarwar has any chance of getting elected as First Minister by the Scottish Parliament, it would be off the back of Reform MSPS and we're saying he should withdraw his nomination as FM rather than take their support, because that would make him dependent on them."

Mr Sarwar accused the Scottish Greens of "playing a game about what happens after the election" and told LBC he was "focused on winning".