George Galloway claims that his daughter was xenophobically abused while shopping in Tesco in Dumfries yesterday afternoon.
The alleged abuse was hurled at Galloway’s daughter while she was carrying her baby.
The leader of the Workers Party of Britain was vehement in his disgust for what he claims to have happened to his daughter.
He took to Twitter to get the attention of police and tell his followers what had happened.
He wrote: “My daughter – carrying her baby! – was told to “get back to England, you English c***” in your Dumfries store @Tesco at 12.50pm today.
I have a picture of her racial abuser.
I will not let this drop.
I’m not that sort of father @PoliceScotland @DumfriesGPolice @scotgov
The tweet has received a great deal of support in less than 24 hours, being liked over 8,000 times and garnering over 1,500 retweets.
Social media users were shocked at what Galloway’s daughter had been told, sending messages of support.
@4thxjuly said: “This sort of hatred has no place in a modern, civilised country.
“I’ve had instances where I was accused of being a ‘No man”, after the 2014 independence vote by two very grumpy fellows who based their summary on my accent after ordering a pint of Guinness.
“Hope she’s ok George.”
@kensdavies wrote: “Appalling – is this what Scotland is reduced to?”
@FThomson73 commented: “I’ve lived in England for over 30 years and not once had anything said to me about being Scottish.
“A sad state of affairs.
“So much for the ‘friendly, welcoming country’ that Scotland claims to be.”
@earthbulb70 added: “Not nice to be on the receiving end of it but, anti-English sentiment in Scotland has always been so to varying degrees.
“On the English side of the border there’s plenty of anti-Scottish sentiment too.”
Galloway’s claims were also met with denial from people who he claimed were Nationalists.
He wrote: “I’m dismayed at the Nationalist response to my daughter’s ordeal today.
“It’s not just venality on display from them, it’s stupidity.
By their denial, obfuscation and even endorsement of this vileness they are proving the charge that their “civic nationalism” is just a fraud.”
Scottish Government hate crime figures, published in February 2021, found that An estimated 7% of racially aggravated hate crimes had a victim of Other White British ethnicity.
This equates to around 230 crimes recorded by the police in 2018-19. In 68% of these crimes, the prejudice shown by the perpetrator was against those from the English community.