Labour leader’s anger over new racism claims
● Leonard denies party has problems after councillor is accused again
Richard Leonard has spoken of his anger after fresh racism allegations were made against one of the party’s councillors.
The Scottish Labour leader vowed to deal swiftly with the allegations including claims that Jim Dempster chased a six-year-old girl with an air freshener telling her that she “smelled like curry”.
The Dumfries and Galloway councillor had already been suspended by Labour for making a racially offensive remark about Transport Minister Humza Yousaf when the new allegations came to light.
Earlierthismonthmrdempster apologised to Mr Yousaf for suggesting that if the minister had visited his council area “no-one would have seen him under the burka”.
The fresh accusations became public when two people, who wish to remain anonymous, approached Mr Yousaf and claimed they had been the victim of “disturbing abuse” when they were children around 30 years ago. Mr Dempster denies the fresh allegations.
Mr Dempster’s accusers are a brother and sister who grew up in one of the few ethnic minority families in the area. The sister said that when she was six or seven she was chased around the newsagent shop that the councillor used to run in Sanquhar, Dumfries and Galloway, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The brother, who is slightly older, said he was still haunted by the “ten years of hell” he claimed to have endured at the hands of the local politician.
He said that when he was boy, Mr Dempster would pick on him whenever he went into the shop, often referring to him as a “P*ki”.
“He would also call me ‘Jew boy’ because he knew as Muslim I was circumcised, just as a Jewish person would have been.
“The racism I received from Jim haunted me my whole life. I tried to suppress it but I now feel I have to speak out.”
His sister said she had been called many names including “chocolate monkey”.
After First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Mr Leonard was asked if his party had a racism problem.
He replied: “We have got no more of a problem with racism than Scottish society as a whole, but where these matters are brought to our attention, where we receive complaints we will investigate them thoroughly.”
He added: “I am impatient and I am angry that we are receiving complaints and they will need to be dealt with thoroughly and timeously. There will be zero tolerance of racism, Islamophobia inside the Scottish Labour Party.”
Mr Dempster said he “absolutely” refuted and denied the new allegations.