Two of Reform UK’s Holyrood election candidates have been accused of hypocrisy on immigration.
Strathkelvin and Bearsden candidate Faten Hameed, who said in a TV interview that illegal immigrants should be put in camps and deported, previously applied for £154,000 of public funding for a ‘comprehensive support and integration programme’ for refugees, asylum seekers and other ethnic minorities in Glasgow.
Reform’s Dunfermline candidate Otto Inglis is also a former asylum caseworker who was singled out for appreciation in a Scottish Refugee Council report calling for more support for asylum seekers.
The party has sought to put immigration at the heart of the Holyrood election campaign and launched an advertising campaign pledging to stop Glasgow being the UK’s illegal migrant capital and warning that ‘Scotland is at breaking point’.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: ‘These revelations expose the hypocrisy of two leading Reform candidates.
‘They’re talking tough on immigration now, with one crank candidate even proposing setting up deportation camps, but their past activities expose them as opportunistic chancers.
‘How on earth can Scots trust these wannabe MSPs on the crucial issue of immigration when their past actions are completely at odds with the policies they now purport to support?
‘The Scottish Conservatives actually have a plan to tackle illegal immigration at source, along with reinstating the local connection rule for housing applications – which the SNP irrationally dropped – to stop major cities like Glasgow becoming a magnet for asylum seekers. That’s why you need to vote for us on your peach ballot.’
Strathkelvin and Bearsden candidate Faten Hameed with Reform leader Nigel Farage
Faten Hameed, pictured with Glasgow MSPs Annie Wells and Dr Sandesh Gulhane, has previously been an election candidate for both Labour and the Conservatives
Then Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn with Faten Hameed, who was previously the party's candidate for Glasgow Central
Ms Hamed, who moved to Scotland from Iraq 30 years ago and has previously been an election candidate for both Labour and the Conservatives, proposed the creation of deportation camps for illegal immigrants in an interview with Sky News last year, when she said: ‘Put them in camps and deport them.’
But records show that when she was chairman of the Scottish Iraqi Association she unsuccessfully applied for £154,266 of funding from the Glasgow Communities Fund for 2026-29 ‘to deliver a comprehensive support and integration program (Sic) for marginalised Iraqi refugees, asylum seekers, and ethnic minorities in Glasgow.’
The project would have provided advice, language support, employability training, mental health workshops and cultural activities to help ‘tackle poverty, reduce social isolation, and promote equal opportunities’.
An overview of the project said that it ‘aligns with Glasgow’s priorities of inclusion, equalities, and poverty reduction, ensuring vulnerable groups receive the support they need to thrive’.
Mr Inglis, who lists his former jobs as including a welfare rights lawyer and asylum caseworker, was given credit in a ‘special appreciation’ section of a ’21 Days Later’ report which demanded ‘simple changes to the asylum process’, and that ‘support should be maintained for refused asylum claimants’.
A Reform UK spokesman said: ‘Faten Hameed has always been clear: illegal migration must be stopped and those with no right to remain should be removed.
‘The project she was involved in was focused on practical community support and reducing pressures at a local level, something that benefits both residents and authorities regardless of broader policy views.
‘Reform UK’s focus is fixing the system so these stopgap measures aren’t needed in the first place.
‘As for Otto Inglis, he has never seen this document you refer to before nor does he endorse it.’