A REFORM UK councillor who shared a stage with neo-Nazi parties at a Glasgow rally said she’d “share a platform with Satan” to get her message across about women’s safety.
Audrey Dempsey, a Glasgow councillor who defected to Reform after being suspended from Labour amid a racism row, has been widely criticised for speaking at a rally last week organised by the Unite The Clans anti-immigration group.
A poster advertising the event had listed Dempsey as a speaker alongside Josh Fernie, an organiser for the neo-Nazi Homeland Party who has said that Adolf Hitler was "standing up to the Jews". Richard McFarlane, from the far-right Patriotic Alternative, also appeared alongside other far-right figures.
Responding to criticism, Dempsey claimed that she had seen “nobody even remotely resembling a Nazi” at the rally, despite numerous images of protesters there throwing Nazi salutes.
RAD MORE: Reform UK councillor 'advised' Glasgow vigilante street patrol group
But reacting to recent media coverage in a TikTok video on Wednesday – captioned, in an apparent contradiction, “half the lies they tell isnt true (sic)” – Dempsey again defended her appearance.
“So, apparently they've had me all over the place for sharing a platform with Nazis,” she said.
“Right, let me just be crystal clear here, crystal clear. I would share a platform with Satan if it meant getting my message across to protect women and girls. I can't be any clearer about that.”
Dempsey went on: “Had the counter-protest been willing to entertain me in any way, shape or form, I would have boldly delivered my speech at one protest and walked across the green at the counter protest and delivered the exact same speech to them because they all need to hear it. It's all important.”
“Everybody has a mother. Everybody came from a mother. A lot of people have daughters, nieces, sisters. So, everybody needs to be aware of the rising risks to women and girls in this present day and age. Everybody, so I will deliver that speech to anybody.
“And me being there delivering that speech doesn't endorse anything else that's going on. I'm not there for any other reason than to get my message across.”
The Unite the Clans rally on Saturday descended into violence, with police making some 15 arrests, including for possession of an offensive weapon, assault, breach of the peace, obstruction, and resisting arrest.
It has also been criticised after videos circulated showing far-right thugs – seemingly coming from the rally – harassing and attacking non-white people in Glasgow city centre later in the day.
The Daily Record have also reported that a man accused of domestic abuse – Alan Miller – appeared at the rally.
One of his apparent ex-partners, Caitlyn Scullion, shared a clip of Miller at the protest and said: “He’s protesting about getting ‘immigrants out’ to protect women and children, when this is what he did to me.”
She then showed images of cuts and bruises to her face, body and legs.
This latest intervention from Dempsey comes after The National revealed that Dempsey has also “advised” Scots Active – a vigilante street patrol group who have been accused of having links to the far-right and targeting migrants – on how to “take them to the next level”.
The Reform councillor used almost half of her TikTok rant to take aim at The National specifically.
She brought up our coverage of criticism of Reform UK’s deputy Scottish leader Thomas Kerr’s "walkabout" in Glasgow (above) and the video he shared in which he claimed that the city is full of "disorder, intimidation, and neglect".
Kerr has repeatedly come under fire for his false claims about Glasgow's crime rates.
The MSP has previously claimed that Glasgow has seen a "rapid rise in violent crimes" and a "crime epidemic", yet the latest figures show this is not the case.
The SNP called on Kerr to apologise, accusing him of "sickening fearmongering through insinuation".
