Aamer Anwar's Speech Sparks Controversy After Hate Speech Allegations

London, United Kingdom Jul 30, 2026 ALN: REFORM'S deputy leader in Scotland Thomas Kerr has reported top human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar to the police for "hate speech".

Kerr's report came after Anwar spoke at a counter-protest to a racist Unite the Clans demonstration on Saturday, July 25, telling the crowd "when politicians like Farage and that Thomas Kerr of Reform demonise migrants, call for 'pure, cold rage' – hatred will spread".

Violence erupted at Glasgow Green and around the city centre on Saturday after the anti-immigration rally that was met with anti-racism protesters, with 15 people arrested for offences including assault, possession of offensive weapons, breach of the peace, obstruction and resisting arrest.

: Police chief condemns 'disgraceful scenes' after far-right violence in Glasgow

Police said groups engaged in violence, disorder, intimidation and hate-motivated offences, including a large group of around 100 people who made their way into the city centre.

Anwar's full speech is below.

Aamer Anwar's full speech from Glasgow Green

Two months ago, as a masked mob of racist thugs tried to march on Glasgow Central Mosque, many in our community were busy phoning our children and families to stay indoors. In Belfast a masked mob went door to door, trying to burn families out of their homes because of the colour of their skin-whilst Leith saw horrific knife attacks.

The question for us as a community, people of colour, is why because of the actions of one madman in Belfast, are we collectively held guilty.

It really isn’t up to us, to have to justify our existence, but for the silent majority to speak up, as they have done today, the silent majority that have turned up in their thousands, we are tired, we are exhausted, we are fed up & and at times we are scared, not just for us but for our children, our parents, our community.

I’ve just been shown videos of a handful of groups that have broken off attacking shopkeepers and shops.

I wonder what would have happened if in response to the knife rampage in Leith – Muslims or members of non-white community had masked up and organised pogroms against the white community; had set fire to white people's homes with children running for their lives.

Would there have been sympathy for their cause? Would the mob have been called campaigners with legitimate concerns? or would we be calling them exactly what they are ‘terrorists’?

We would be questioning their culture, we would be questioning their culture religion, we will be asking which one asking one of their community leaders was responsible for radicalising them - starting at the top with Nigel Farage and Stephen Yaxley Lennon.

(Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)

True solidarity means more now than staying quiet, we need to call out racism in our circles, we need to fact-check the poison in their timelines, and we need to shame those who rioted in Belfast, who rioted in Glasgow, and we need to shame those, I am sickened by opening up their social media that every time a black person is attacked, that every time a mosque is attacked, every time a woman of colour is raped, you see smiley emojis and abuse.

Even Anders Breivik, a Norwegian man, a terrorist, a far-right activist, who 15 years ago murdered 77 young people on a small island of the coast of Norway, who killed a number of individuals with a car bomb- I opened it up yesterday -all I could see was ‘maybe he was right’, ‘maybe if they stopped the people coming in’, people just jumping on the bandwagon, hundreds and hundreds of people feeling they have the freedom now to attack, the freedom to express their racism.

Let me be clear in 2026 – what saw in Belfast, no child in the United Kingdom should have to flee a home after it set on fire, no parent should have to beg their white neighbours to take their children for safety. no parent should have to fear their children playing on the street or be scared to go to a park with them to watch them play, be it Leith, Glasgow Belfast or wherever.

“Pure cold rage” has incited white pogroms; the target is a people whose only crime as we can see on the streets of Glasgow is not to have white skin.

The trade union movement is essential to building a mass movement, a united movement against the rise of Fascism. As a community we cannot do it on our own, the women’s movement cannot do it on their own, the LGBTI movement cannot do it on their own, we are all under attack, which means we have to put aside our differences, we have to unite as a movement to build a movement that can crush this lot once and for all.

: The fascism which blighted our streets is a disease of British nationalism

The people being attacked are part of the fabric of our society, without them our NHS, our care homes, our social services, our transport system would fall apart. Immigrants contribute the backbone to every town and city in Britain. When politicians like Farage and that Thomas Kerr of reform demonise migrants, call for 'pure, cold rage' – hatred will spread.

But their racist bile will not build a single hospital, help a single homeless person, keep a women safe in her home or on our streets, nor will it lift a single child out of poverty. It is not legitimate for those members of the press here today, it is not legitimate concerns it’s pogroms, its terrorism.

Racists now think they're legitimate, because Farage gave them a script. Robinson gave them a signal. Musk gave them a platform. They have no solution they are on a road map to fascism.

In 2021 at Kenmure Street, I still remember the moment I opened the door to Priti Patel’s Home Office van- I said to the two Indian men you are free because of the people of Glasgow. What took place that day gave us hope, its these demonstrations, it made us proud of our city, of Scotland-when our neighbours stood shoulder to shoulder.

(Image: PA)

We have no choice, but to channel that spirit of Kenmure Street, we cannot fail, our message must always be one of solidarity, of hope not hate.

And what we can say today is that Mosque is protected, what we said to the police was unconditional, that mosque must not have any fascists or far-right having the right to march on it, that was the deal done in 2014 when the Defence League wanted to launch in Scotland, and we kept to that position,

but we will only maintain that position if thousands of us continue to turn out like we have done today, because we have numbers on our side, we have the ideas on our side, we have the politics, the culture, the people, and the music on our side, we will win this, we have no choice but to win it. Thank you.