THE UK Government has been accused of borrowing "right wing racist" slogans for its poster campaign targeting illegal immigrants in Glasgow.

Labour equalities spokeswoman Jackie Baillie accused the Coalition of using 1970s' National Front chants and language in its campaign to encourage those in the country illegally to 'go home'.

In a Member's Debate in the Scottish Parliament, she called for a policy based on facts and not rhetoric. She told the parliament: "I am an immigrant, born in Hong Kong to a Portuguese father and Scottish mother."

She said she came here in her teens, but added this is where she lives and chooses to bring up her family.

She said: "So when the Home Office says 'go home' what are they saying to me but more importantly what are they saying to the people seeking asylum, many of whom are fleeing violence and fleeing to save their lives?"

She said she had seen the posters in the Home Office immigration centre in Brand Street in Govan which read "Is life here hard? Going home is easy."

Ms Baillie said she remembered the "1970s hate-filled toxic rhetoric of the National Front, telling the newly arrived and visible minority to 'go home'."

She said: "I don't accept this is in any way a coincidence, which makes the campaign all the more appalling.

"It is beyond belief that the Conservative Liberal Democrat Coalition would borrow from such right wing racist ideology."

She called for a debate based on evidence and understanding, not on ill informed rhetoric.

Humza Yousaf, Glasgow MSP and external relations minister said he had experienced "every racist slur under the sun", but being told to go home was the one that "hurt the most".

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk