Reform UK activist claimed to know that Northern Ireland migrants would be targeted

A senior activist with Reform UK claimed to have prior knowledge that migrants in Northern Ireland would be targeted by rioters who set fire to family homes last week.

Grant Calder, who campaigned for Thomas Kerr MSP during the Scottish Parliament election, claimed on Facebook on Tuesday that “there are going to be protests and there’s going to be trouble, including migrants getting put out of houses and hostels”.

That evening, masked rioters set fire to migrant’s houses in Northern Ireland in what has been described as a “race-based pogrom”.

Calder has been suspended by Reform UK following allegations by The National that he made antisemitic comments. 

The Ferret’s findings prompted concerns that he apparently had advance warning that innocent people would be targeted but did not alert Northern Ireland’s authorities. 

In response, Reform UK claimed that it has “repeatedly and unequivocally condemned violence, intimidation and criminal damage”. Calder declined to comment.

The violence that erupted last week in both Northern Ireland and Scotland came after  Stephen Ogilvie, a man living in Belfast but with links to Scotland, was brutally stabbed by a Sudanese refugee who has since been charged with attempted murder. 

Ogilvie is in hospital in Belfast. His family described his condition as “stable” and expressed disgust at the violence perpetrated by far right actors. They said: “We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward.”

Calder, who has campaigned with senior Reform UK figures including Kerr and deputy UK leader Richard Tice, commented last Tuesday on the Facebook page of Scots Active – a group that conducts street patrols in Glasgow. Ahead of the violence, Scots Active wrote that the “Irish have every right to riot”.

In response to posts about the attack on Ogilvie and planned protests, Calder claimed to have contacts in Northern Ireland and said: “Listen up folks, we have boots on the ground in Belfast right now and I can tell you two things: People are really angry: there are going to be protests and there’s going to be trouble, including migrants getting put out of houses and hotels.”

He added that protests in the province would be held in “New Lodge [Catholic area of Belfast] and the Shankill Road [Protestant area], where local prods [Protestants] are much more switched on to the dangers of immigration.” 

Migrant’s homes in Shankill Road were later attacked.

On Tuesday night, Calder was pictured at the steps outside the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Buchanan Street, holding a “white lives matter” banner at a protest also attended by Patriotic Alternative, a group often described as neo-Nazi. He wrote on X: “For all attending keep it peaceful. Ignore any provocateurs. They serve our destruction. Do not be baited.”

But violence erupted and Police Scotland said five people were injured by those associated with the protest, including two officers, after hundreds of people wearing masks marched through Glasgow city centre that evening. Three men have been arrested and charged following disorder and racist assaults.

Assistant chief constable Alan Waddell said: "Officers responded to disorder and violence, including incidents in Glasgow where members of the public were attacked because of the colour of their skin. Officers were also attacked.” He condemned the offences and insisted there was “no place for racism and violence in Scotland”. 

Calder later said he had “zero regrets and zero sympathy” for the victims of the riots, claiming he would neither condemn the violence or apologise. “ I stand fully by everyone who turned out and would do again,” he added. 

Patrick Harvie, a Scottish Greens Glasgow MSP, alleged that Reform and “their toxic policies have already contributed to unleashing a wave of hate, towards migrants and people of colour, simply for being migrants or their skin colour”. 

He added: “Their shameful and constant demonisation of New Scots and racialised communities has contributed to people being targeted, intimidated and abused while empowering the thugs who are doing it. Now it is being alleged that a close friend of Thomas Kerr knew this was going to happen all along. Mr Kerr and his party must be held accountable.”

A spokesperson for campaign group Stand Up To Racism Scotland said: "This is nothing new for Reform UK and it shows why anti-racists are right to say no to the normalisation of its politics of division. Their dehumanising anti-refugee rhetoric encourages far right activists who want to exploit tragedies to bring the violent race riots in Belfast to Glasgow.”

“Their shameful and constant demonisation of New Scots and racialised communities has contributed to people being targeted, intimidated and abused while empowering the thugs who are doing it.” — Patrick Harvie, Scottish Greens

Last week, the spokesperson added, Reform leader Nigel Farage called for “pure, cold rage” and Thomas Kerr called for people to “take to the streets” just hours before the “far right ran riot through the streets of Glasgow”. They continued: “The majority of us who reject this hatred must stand united against us."

Calder said: “I have already provided a full response to the matters raised in my submission to Reform UK. I have no further comment at this moment.”

A Reform UK Scotland spokesman claimed Stand Up To Racism’s accusations were “entirely false and deliberately inflammatory” and that it rejected “any suggestion of racism or any attempt to associate our calls for peaceful protest and public accountability with criminal disorder”.

He added: “The violence and disorder witnessed in Glasgow were unacceptable and served nobody’s interests. It is entirely legitimate in a democratic society to raise concerns about immigration policy, border security, public safety and community cohesion. Attempting to silence those concerns by branding political opponents racist is both dishonest and deeply irresponsible.

“Thomas Kerr MSP explicitly called for peaceful protest. Any suggestion that advocating lawful democratic expression is somehow responsible for criminal behaviour is absurd and an intentional distortion of the facts.”

Kerr said: “I won't be silenced and neither will Reform - we are the voice of Scotland's forgotten working-class communities and speak f