'Genuine frustration'

Glaswegians square up to Reform ahead of Farage's visit to Scotland this week

- Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

Selina Hales has a thing about pineapples. She is talking in a quiet office, set aside from the bustle of Refuweegee, the charity she founded 10 years ago, and the walls are festooned with tissue paper cutouts of the fruit, which is an international symbol of hospitality.

Refuweegee - its name a combination of the words "refugee" and "Weegee", local slang for Glaswegian - has expanded over the decade into an operation that supports hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees in the city every day. Back then, she had a simple idea about making welcome packs, each one including a handwritten letter from a Glasgow resident. "One of our favourite letters said: 'Welcome to Glasgow. I like pineapples. What do you like?"

Refuweegee has sent out more than 10,000 welcome packs and those letters reflect a quintessential aspect of the city: opening its arms to strangers in need. Threaded through the city's memory are acts of generosity and resistance - the Glasgow Girls who fought the detention of their Kosovan classmate, the public outpouring after the Park Inn tragedy, the residents who surrounded an immigration enforcement van in Kenmure Street.

But the past year has seen a shift in Scottish public sentiment. Nigel Farage's Reform UK party secured 26% of the vote in its first Scottish parliament byelection, and there were protests outside asylum hotels and flag raising across its cities, including Glasgow.

"Over the past 10 years I've felt we were moving towards something positive," says Hales. "This is a frightening moment."

Visitors to Refuweegee's hub in the city centre are feeling less safe. Hales gestures to the hangout space that offers free hot meals and welcomes 200-300 people a day: "There won't be a person in there that will not have received racial abuse, or felt unsafe because of looks or because of the flags. It's definitely becoming more common. People are being emboldened, because of the likes of Farage."