Renfrewshire’s Labour leader has said fascism must “be kept at bay” as protests at the Erskine asylum hotel continue.
A demonstration was held on Sunday, the third weekend in a row, with protesters calling for people seeking asylum to be removed from the area.
Counter demonstrators from Stand up to Racism also turned up to show their support for those inside the hotel.
A spokesman for the organisation who lives in Erskine accused far-right group Patriotic Alternative (PA) of spreading “hate, misinformation and lies” in the local community.
In a video posted from the demonstration, he said: “You only have to look at their website to see that’s the case. The truth of the matter is, Erskine, and I speak for Erskine, we say yes.
“Yes to refugees, no to the Patriotic Alternative. They can go away, they are not welcome in Erskine. Refugees, we welcome them.”
The Paisley Daily Express previously reported how concerns had been raised by local residents in Erskine who were upset about a lack of consultation over the placement of up to 174 asylum seekers in the MGM Mutha Glasgow River Hotel.
There was anger among locals that their grievances with the authorities had been co opted by PA, with the organiser of the Erskine Against Asylum Hotel Facebook Page, Derek Stitt, telling the Express that “PA have totally tried to hijack our campaign,” adding “it has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with get asylum seekers out, we just want the government the local authority and Mears to come out and say, ‘these are the issues, these are the measures we’re putting in place,’ etc.”
Speaking at an event to commemorate the Scots who travelled to Spain as part of the International Brigade to fight facism in that country’s civil war in 1936, the Labour party leader on Renfrewshire Council, Iain McMillan said that the presence of PA in Erskine shows that “fascism is still very much alive in the streets of Scotland.”
He added: “It’s up to people like ourselves to keep that at bay and let them know that we don’t want fascism here in Scotland”.
Also speaking at the event was Robert Parker, secretary Paisley & District Trade Union Council.
He said: “Many of you would have read about the vigil we organised in Erskine last week in support of refugees and the comment I made there was ‘who here isn’t a descendant of a refugee, very few of us I imagine, in fact personally I’d say both family lines at some point are descendant of refugees, whatever they were escaping from."
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