Richard Tice in row with Laura Kuenssberg over Anas Sarwar comments
The deputy leader of Reform UK doubled down on his party's recent attack advert against Scottish Labour, which has been widely condemned as "racist", during the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
The political advert, which was seen by more than one million people on Facebook, falsely claimed that Sarwar would 'prioritise the Pakistani community'.
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The ad includes selected clips from a video spread by far and alt-right agitators on social media in a bid to claim that Europe was under threat from 'multiculturalism' and mass immigration, specifically of Muslims.
While it has been branded "racist" by both the SNP and Scottish Labour, Farage doubled down and went on to tell a press conference in London that Sarwar had "introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics".
During the programme on Sunday, Kuenssberg asked Tice about his party leader's comments, saying: "Your leader Nigel Farage claimed that the Muslim Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar had said that he would prioritise the Pakistani community.
"He did not use those words. Was Nigel Farage's claim false?"
Tice refused to be drawn on whether the claim was false, as he said: "No, look, what we would talk about was that actually, the Labour leader in Scotland was essentially sort of developing sectarian politics, and we called that out.
"We had the Scottish by-election and we came within 750 people of winning it.
"So the ridiculous claims made by the other main politicians in Scotland about us, frankly, the voters have just ignored, and we came within a whisker of an absolute shock, a seismic shock.
Richard Tice "We got 26%, it was a three-way marginal, and I think Scottish politics is changing."
Reform UK came third in Thursday's Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, with their candidate Ross Lambie winning 7088 votes. The party won 26.2% of the vote share but were 1471 votes away from beating Scottish Labour's Davy Russell, not 750 votes as Tice – who was at the count – claimed on Sunday.
Tice went on: "We had a very simple slogan that seemed to work. 'Drill, Scotland, drill'. The oil and gas industry generates huge prosperity for Scotland, for the United Kingdom, and we should be embracing it and enhancing it, not shutting it down, which the Labour Government has essentially followed what the Tories did before with the ridiculous windfall tax."
Kuenssberg returned to Farage's claims about the Scottish Labour leader, as she asked: "Do you not think it's important to say things that are true in politics?
"Mr Farage claimed that Anas Sarwar had used words that he simply did not. He made a false claim on a sensitive issue. Was he wrong to do that?"
Tice then doubled down on his party's claims about Sarwar bringing in sectarianism into Scottish politics.
"No, look, it is sensitive, you're right," he said.
"But was it right for Mr Sarwar to claim that Pakistanis and the South Asian community should, for example, dominate and dictate the Scottish educational agenda?"
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Kuenssberg interrupted: "My question to you is whether or not it was right for Mr Farage to make a false claim about words Anas Sarwar did not use?"
Tice said: "Well, you can interpret. I think in the overall context it was not a false claim.
"It was what Mr Sarwar was doing, which was bringing sectarian politics into Scottish politics. And that is wrong, that's not how we do things."
First Minister John Swinney said at the time that Farage had "brought racism and hatred" into the by-election campaign, as the SNP submitted a formal complaint to Meta, Facebook's parent company.
Meanwhile, Sarwar branded Farage a "poisonous man who doesn't understand Scotland".
Scottish Labour have been contacted for comment.
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