Ex-Labour councillor who defected to Reform distances himself from 'racist' Anas Sarwar advert
Jamie McGuire - who joined Nigel Farage's party last week - told the Holyrood Sources podcast he would have focussed the advert on the economy instead.
A Reform councillor who defected from Scottish Labour has distanced himself from a "racist" ad his party put out about Anas Sarwar.
Jamie McGuire - who joined Nigel Farage's party last week - told the Holyrood Sources podcast he would have focussed the advert on the economy instead.
He said the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election "went nasty" and that he would rather focus on policies.
Reform released an online attack advert about Scottish Labour leader Sarwar during the campaign, claiming he wanted to "prioritise" the Pakistani community.
Farage also accused him of having "introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics." Sarwar hit back, calling the advert racist.
When asked about the ad, McGuire said: "I want to do politics more in a civil way and I think that politics has become toxic on all sides and I think that's what puts people off getting involved."
He added: "On language, I think on all sides, in politics, everyone can do better. I really do.
"Because if we want to get more people involved, more young people, more women and other people as well, then I think what you need to do is you need to have an environment where people feel they can speak and they're not going to get all this hatred.
"Unfortunately during that by-election on all sides, people felt like it, at times, went nasty. And I would much rather, in politics, we focus more on the policies."
When asked if he thought the ad was wrong, McGuire said: "If I was doing an ad, I would have focused on the economy because it's something I'm passionate about.
"It's something I feel is the most important issue at this moment in time."
The post included an image of Sarwar next to the words: "Anas Sarwar has said he will prioritise the Pakistani community."
It then cut to a video of the Glasgow MSP telling an audience in 2022: 'The days where South Asian political communities get to lead political parties and get to lead countries is now upon is.'
But Sarwar did not say he would 'prioritise' the Pakistani community.
At a press conference, the Reform UK leader played a clip of the advert and tried to blame Sarwar: "So it was Anas Sarwar that introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics. Making it perfectly clear his priority was to a certain section of the community.'
Sarwar branded the advert 'blatantly racist'.
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