Anas Sarwar attacks Malcolm Offord over 'utterly shameful' comments on Scottish Catholic schools
Anas Sarwar has launched an attack on Malcolm Offord ahead of Reform UK’s Scottish conference on Thursday.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has branded Malcolm Offord’s “attack” on Catholic education as “utterly shameful”.
Last week, the Reform UK leader in Scotland caused controversy by proposing an end to denominational schooling in Scotland.
In his remarks, Mr Offord argued that “if we are going to have a community, we should be going to school together”.
He added: “We don’t want segregation, we don’t want sectarianism.”
Mr Offord later attempted to walk back his remarks, stressing it wasn’t party policy but his personal belief.
But Mr Sarwar has accused Reform’s leader in Scotland of moving to “attack Catholic education in our country”.
Speaking to journalists in Glasgow, Mr Sarwar said: “I think it is utterly shameful.”
He added: “That has been a legal protection in our country for 100 years.
“To try and pretend the divisions exist in our country because of Catholic schools, is a fundamental misunderstanding of traditions in Scotland. We will protect Catholic education.
“Of course we want communities to come together, of course we want to challenge some of the big divisions that exist in our country. The idea that Catholic schools are the problem in that is a nonsense. We will protect Catholic education.”
Ahead of Reform UK’s Scottish conference on Thursday, Mr Sarwar also accused Mr Offord of misinformation over vigilante so-called night patrols.
Mr Offord said he had spent time with a group of men who patrol at weekends between 9pm and 2am to keep women and girls safe amid concerns over immigration.
He said the group - North2South - acted “in cooperation” with the police.
Police Scotland said it does not “endorse, condone or encourage any group's activity” and rubbished claims the groups operate in partnership with officers.
Mr Sarwar argued that Mr Offord was “finding reasons to create division” and shift attention “from the fact that clearly Reform have no ideas how to fix Scotland”.
“All they can do is help the SNP win again”, he added.
“The words he used were ‘strange people from strange lands’ coming to our country and targeting young women.
“There are far too many young women who feel unsafe in our town centres and our city centres, particularly at weekends or on night outs. Also, in everyday communities and everyday streets, too many of our young women feel unsafe.
“That’s because there is rising misogyny, there is rising violence against women and girls and we have to address that by properly resourcing our police, by supporting victims with the resources and the capacity they need, but also by fixing the courts system that too often pushes victims down the priority.”
Mr Sarwar said the Reform leader was “right to identify a problem about women feeling unsafe”.
“But he’s trying to do it in a way to divide us, rather than come up with a proper solution”, he added.
The Scottish Labour leader added: “If you are worried about women in our city centres, so am I. The best way of addressing that is by making sure that we’re changing the behaviour of men, making sure we have adequate resourcing of police on the frontline in our town centres and city centres, but also adequate levels of public transport at those key times, when too often, people feel abandoned in our town and city centres.
“I don’t think we need the vigilantes, I think we need investment in the police. I don’t think we need the division and the poison of Reform. We need a government that’s actually going to fix the broken system. “
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