Protest mob who forced release of immigrants from van in Glasgow 'selfish', says police chief

Protesters who forced the release of two Indian men from Home Office detention in Glasgow were “selfish”, a senior police officer has said.

Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie compared demonstrators who surrounded an immigration enforcement van for several hours to Rangers fans who rampaged through Glasgow city centre at the weekend.

Both groups, as well those taking part in a pro-Palestinian rally in George Square on Sunday, had put others at risk by flouting Covid restrictions, he said.

Last Thursday, hundreds of protesters descended on a Home Office van after officials detained two immigrants in the city's Pollokshields area, preventing it from leaving. The men were eventually released following a standoff that lasted several hours.

Nicola Sturgeon was among several politicians who sided with the crowd, which Home Office sources described as a “mob” who had blocked the lawful removal of people living in the UK illegally.

However, Mr Ritchie accused the group, along with the Rangers fans and pro-Palestinian activists, of behaving "selfishly" particularly with Scotland's largest city in the midst of a Covid surge.

Watch: Glasgow crowd applauds as men detained by Home Office are released after protest

“The vast majority of people can follow the rules and do follow the rules,” Mr Ritchie said. “But there have always been a few who have decided to ignore that.

“In every single occasion that that has happened, it's selfish. Every single one of the 15,000 people that come out at the weekend, to gather at Ibrox, or in the other demonstrations and protests, did so selfishly and in contravention to the rules and the regulations that were put in place to try and keep the people in the city safe.”

He added: “In all three cases, people flouted the Covid regulations, the advice that has been given to people not to gather together in mass crowds, especially in Glasgow at the moment, where we've got a dangerous variant going through the city.

“So yes, in that sense they are the same. They all flouted the regulations and the guidance and the advice that have been provided beforehand.”

Mr Ritchie also defended Police Scotland’s handling of the Rangers fans' celebrations on Saturday, which he said began peacefully but then descended into violence.

The force has set up a special task force to identify supporters who took part in disorder, which saw five police officers suffer injuries and fans fight amongst themselves. Some people have questioned why police sought to facilitate the gatherings, which were widely anticipated, rather than try and break them up.

He told STV’s Scotland Tonight: “I can understand people watching the telly or sat behind their computers and having an opinion.

“In actual fact it's a really complicated state of affairs and a real balance needs to be stuck about how you police a crowd.

“If you get it wrong, you can create problems, and our approach is always with a focus on keeping people safe.”

Following the protest designed to block the removal of the Indian immigrants, Police Scotland said it had decided to order the release of the men on public safety grounds.

Immigration is a reserved matter, meaning the officials that detained the men were acting on instructions from the Home Office, although Police Scotland was tasked with policing the subsequent protest.

Ms Sturgeon attacked the Home Office for acting “in the heart of a Muslim community as they celebreated Eid”, although it later transpired that the detained men, Sumit Sehdev and Lakhvir Singh, were Sikhs.

Mhairi Hunter, a Glasgow SNP councillor, said that while she understood police concerns around coronavirus regulations the UK Government agency's actions had been "completely reckless" with the community's reaction "inevitable and completely justified".

Paul Sweeney, the Labour MSP for Glasgow who encouraged people to join the protests, said Mr Ritchie's comparison between the protesters and "football thugs" was "crass and reflects a profound lack of awareness."

He added: "It should also be noted that the current rules permit outdoor gatherings for the purposes of urgent intervention in support of people in distress that would validate the action taken on Thursday."

At Holyrood on Tuesday, Humza Yousaf, the SNP justice secretary, said that while he did not support public gatherings there had not been an "absolute equivalence" between the behaviour of the immigration protesters, in Kenmure Street, and Rangers supporters.

He added that introducing 'strict liability' - meaning football clubs could be held responsible and punished for the actions of fans - was "on the table" following the weekend's scenes.

"We didn't see thuggish, loutish behaviour in Kenmure Street," Mr Yousaf said. "We didn't see disorder. We didn't see protesters punching police officers. We didn't see protesters urinating in public, we didn't hear anti-Catholic bigotry on Kenmure Street, or indeed at some of the other gatherings.

"So when it comes to the public health emergency [the virus] doesn't distinguish, but let's not think that there is an absolute equivalence between what we saw at the weekend and what we saw in Pollokshields."

Watch: Priti Patel’s Immigration Rules - What We Know So Far