THE former deputy leader of Britain First has announced she will stand for Holyrood in the First Minister’s Glasgow Southside constituency.
Jayda Fransen, a convicted racist who won fewer than 60 votes when she last stood for election, was confirmed as nomination papers were published last night.
Last year the far-right bigot travelled to Glasgow and held up a British Freedom Party banner outside Humza Yousaf’s Glasgow Pollock office. It stated “all lives matter”, a phrase used by those opposed to Black Lives Matter.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf says intimidation won't work as far-right group targets his office
Fransen, 34, will run as an independent against Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
She was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison in 2018 after being found guilty of three counts of religiously aggravated harassment.
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Fransen, who formed the British Freedom Party, describes herself as an “extremist in every sense”. She believes Islam and the Koran should be banned while those opposed to the monarchy should be hanged for treason.
Her plan to stand for election was revealed by the Daily Record in January, when she said: “I am going to be standing in the Scottish elections in May against these SNP commie, Marxists, naughty people.”
Meanwhile Jim Dowson, a founding member of Britain First, is standing in the Airdrie and Shotts constituency.
In a video on the British Freedom Party channel of online video platform Purged.tv, Dowson said: “I’m really looking forward to the people of Airdrie at last having the chance to vote for one of their own, because I don’t mince my words and I’m not there to represent everybody, which all the politicians say, I’m there to represent our people, British people, everybody else can go and take a run and jump.”
Mr Dowson will be standing against former SNP MP Neil Gray, who has vacated his Westminster seat to run for Holyrood.
In a request for funding during the video, Dowson described himself, Fransen and Joe Finnie - described as the organiser of the British Freedom Party - as “machine guns” and donations as “bullets”.
He added: “Your pound notes equate into weapons of war against our enemy.
“Against the people who are trying to destroy our country and in turn our people themselves.
“We have to get behind this and we have to get wired into this.”
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