{"id":718514,"date":"2026-07-30T05:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/718514\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T05:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:07:15","slug":"reform-uk-councillor-advised-far-right-glasgow-vigilante-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/718514\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK councillor ‘advised’ far-right Glasgow vigilante group"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Audrey Dempsey, a Glasgow councillor who defected to Reform after being suspended from Labour amid a racism row<\/a>, has this week been under fire after speaking at the rally on Saturday organised by the Unite The Clans anti-immigration group.\n<\/p>\n

\n A poster advertising the event had listed Dempsey as a speaker<\/a> 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.\n<\/p>\n

\n Responding to criticism, Dempsey claimed that she had seen \u201cnobody even remotely resembling a Nazi\u201d at the rally, despite numerous images of protesters there throwing Nazi salutes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: Wikipedia page of Scottish Labour leadership hopeful edited just before bid confirmed<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n The National can now reveal that Dempsey has also \u201cadvised\u201d Scots Active \u2013 a vigilante street patrol group who have been accused of having links to the far-right and targeting migrants \u2013 on how to \u201ctake them to the next level\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Founded by Darren Docherty, Scots Active undertakes masked street patrols under the guise of protecting the local community, and frequently attends anti-immigration protests in Glasgow.\n<\/p>\n

\n A post on the group\u2019s Facebook from earlier this year thanked the Reform UK councillor for joining them on a patrol.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are so thankful she could take the time to come and complete a full walk,\u201d the post read. “As well as all the advice and much more we need to take ourselves to the next level this year.\n<\/p>\n

\n “With counsellor Dempseys (sic) advice we are confident that we will make the right moves to becoming a non profit charity, have an official number for anyone needing our help to contact us on and we will hopefully have enough funding to get us set up in a small office space so the team have a base.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n We previously exclusively revealed that Reform UK deputy leader Thomas Kerr has also agreed to go on a patrol with the group.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n The Daily Record<\/a> has previously reported that members of Scots Active have a WhatsApp group titled “Get These C**** Out!”, and The National has also seen evidence of the account referring to migrants as “c****”.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The group’s Facebook page has also shared posts about arming Scots with guns, with a number of members commenting in response about needing them against “invaders”, with one user adding: “who knows what they’ve got in the mosques.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Another said: “You can use my house as a weapons stash if you want.”\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The group, however, strenuously denies it is racist and has urged critics not to “confuse opposition to illegal immigration with racism”.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n In response, the Scottish Greens<\/a> have hit out at Reform UK for their association with the group.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is exactly what we warned about following the violence and intimidation we saw in Glasgow at the weekend, Reform UK politicians are not just parroting and repeating far-right misinformation; they are actively lending credibility and stabilising support to the groups spreading them,” Glasgow Southside<\/a> MSP Holly Bruce said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u201cIt is deeply alarming that an elected councillor reportedly advised a masked street patrol on how to grow, access funding and establish itself as a charity.”\n<\/p>\n

\n She added:\u00a0\u201cOur communities do not need masked far-right thugs like Scots Active, roaming Glasgow\u2019s streets and intimidating anyone they deem to not belong here.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u201cWhat our communities need is leadership from politicians who bring people together and tackle the poverty, inequality and failing public services that the far right seeks to exploit.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u201cAudrey Dempsey and Reform UK should come clean and explain exactly what advice was provided and whether they stand by this involvement.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u201cI am proud to call Glasgow a welcoming and diverse city, and we must confront this hatred before it becomes normalised.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n In response to a request for comment, Scots Active instead posted an expletive-laded rant on their Facebook page.\n<\/p>\n

\n The group also wrote: \u201cI am sick to death of media outlets shouting right wing this and right wing that just because we want what should be fucking normal ! secure borders and safety on out streets (sic) !”\n<\/p>\n

\n They also wrote in direct response: \u201cYou fucking stupid mate your gonny spread the lies you clearly listen to anyways fs take yer rag paper n shove it up yer hole.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Reform UK have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audrey Dempsey, a Glasgow councillor who defected to Reform after being suspended from Labour amid a racism row,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-718514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}