Ex-trump aide rejects Sturgeon ‘racist’ rap
The controversial strategist who helped Donald Trump win the White House has hit back at First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to pull out of a conference in Edinburgh last night over his appearance.
Steve Bannon is a champion of popular right-wing movements that have swept the US and Europe in recent years and is an ally of Ukip’s former leader Nigel Farage.
His appearance at the News Xchange conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre met with protests from around 100 antifascist campaigners.
Mr Bannon was interviewed by the BBC’S Scotland editor Sarah Smith at the event, who told him that Ms Sturgeon had cancelled a scheduled appearance at the conference when it emerged he was also speaking.
The First Minister did not want to be part of any process that risked “legitimising far right racist views,” Mr Bannon was told.
But the former White House strategist hit back at this characterisation of his politics.
“I think if you look at the elections in the United States, over 50 per cent of the people supportus,”hesaid.“thesearenot racist people. Popular nationalism ... is the exact opposite. What we’re trying to do in the United States is make sure that we’re not flooded with illegal, alien labour that suppresses African Americans and Hispanics. This is the whole philosophy of Trump’s economic programme.”
Mr Bannon told his audience that “populism is the future”.
Next year’s EU elections will be marked by the rise of populist movements, on the right and left, which characterised the 2016 US election and saw Donald Trump sweep to victory, he added.
Ms Smith had earlier defended Mr Bannon’s appearance at the event, insisting he represented a “powerful and disruptive” political force.
“It is impossible and unwise for us to try to ignore it,” she said.