Headlines that Blame Refugees Fuel the Far Right.

While Susan Aitken, the Council Leader, said refugees are not to blame and pointed to Home Office policies and chronic underfunding, she also asserted that the “refugee homelessness crisis” would lead to cuts to services and job losses. The headline strips away all nuance, leaving the impression that housing refugees is the problem. 

Refugees are not to blame for Glasgow’s housing emergency. The real crisis is decades of short-termism and deliberate political choices that manufacture homelessness while scapegoating refugees. If the UK Government invested in homes – for everyone, including refugees – instead of handing billions to outsourcing giants like Serco, Mears and Clearsprings to dump people in rundown hotels, there would be decent housing for all today. Outsourcing giants take the profits – not asylum seekers surviving on £9 a week in temporary accommodation.

In the run up to the May 2026 elections, politicians have a responsibility to use their words carefully, or risk seeing racist violence rise against refugees. The press also have a duty to challenge racist narratives that scapegoat refugees for economic failure, job cuts or cuts to services.

Stop platforming the far right as if it is legitimate and respectable. If you are a politician, take a stand. Don’t share platforms with the far right. Don’t go onto platforms that exist to spread hate just for headlines.