Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says she is “committed to tackling” antisemitism
Scottish First Minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) Leader Nicola Sturgeon has reportedly said that she is “committed to tackling” antisemitism.
It was reported last week that Ms Sturgeon met with The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and Glasgow Jewish Representative Council to discuss the rise in antisemitism, where it was said that she “understood the community’s anxieties” and seemingly expressed a desire to meet with university representatives to help tackle on-campus antisemitism.
Ms Sturgeon said afterwards that the meeting had been “incredibly useful” before adding that “antisemitism will not be tolerated in Scotland and we remain committed to tackling it”.
It is noteworthy, however, that so far this year, three reports have surfaced of SNP members making gratuitous comparisons between a major political party to the Nazis.
In April, an SNP candidate apologised after comments from 2017 emerged in which she had reportedly compared tactics by the Conservatives to Hitler and the Holocaust. Two weeks later, it had been revealed that another SNP candidate posted a comment on Facebook comparing the Labour Party’s political strategy in Scotland to that of the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Last month, an SNP MP apologised for, and deleted, a tweet in which he wrote that “Murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto.” However, another tweet in which he appeared to compare the Conservative Party to the Nazis still remains on his Twitter account.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.