SNP MP slams May’s Tory party as ‘extremists, xenophobes’
THE SNP’s trade union spokesman at Westminster has made a blistering attack on the “extremists and xenophobes” he says are occupying Downing Street under Theresa May’s leadership.
Chris Stephens said sections of the UK establishment were peddling the worst “level of vile, degrading, naked bigotry” in living memory. He made the comments while giving the SNP’s fraternal speech to the Plaid Cymru conference in Llangollen yesterday.
The Glasgow South West MP said Tory ministers were using EU citizens as “bargaining chips” with a complete disregard for the rights of long-term residents from other member states to remain in the UK after Brexit.
Stephens told the conference that “anti-worker zealots” and “Tory extremists” in May’s government were intent on stripping away workers’ rights that British workers benefit from through EU membership.
The MP said that Little Englander Tories with an “I’m alright Jack” attitude were pulling all parts of the UK towards a “dystopian and twisted future”.
He singled out the suggestion from Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who said that companies could be forced to list how many foreign workers they employed in a speech to the UK Tory conference, as a prime example.
Stephens said the SNP and Plaid Cymru had to stand up to “this hatred, this intolerance, this bigotry, this extremism, this disgrace” as he attacked what he claimed were the xenophobic attitudes of many Tory politicians, Ukip members and sections of the right-wing media.
In his speech yesterday he said: “Have no doubt, these are dangerous times too.
“Not in my lifetime have I seen the level of vile, degrading, naked bigotry now spewing forth from some members of the establishment. The front pages of some of our newspapers are quite simply an affront to human decency.
“The normalisation of the kind of attitudes we thought we consigned to the dustbin of history, by those in charge of UK plc, is nothing short of a national – and international – disgrace.
“But I know that the people of our nations are better than that. Better than the bile, better than divide and rule, better than the Daily Mail, better than anti-immigration mugs, better than Ukip, better than the zealots.”
Stephens, in an attack on Rudd and international trade secretary Liam Fox, added: “The people of our isles will not stand for ‘lists of foreign workers’ compiled under orders from the Tory government.
“The people of our isles will not stand by while EU citizens are used as bargaining chips by the disgraced and disgraceful Liam Fox.”
Stephens concluded: “The people of our isles will not stand back while the extremists and xenophobes currently occupying Downing Street give succour to their fellow extremists and xenophobes elsewhere.”