I DO NOT KNOW IF MY KIDS ARE SAFE IN THE UK

Ex-FM claims anti-Muslims could force his family to flee | Far-right groups plan rallies on back of violence across England

- MARK MCGIVERN

FORMER First Minister Humza Yousaf has warned that he and his family may flee Scotland due to the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry.

Humza Yousaf's chilling warning came as it emerged racism-fuelled riots could be set to spread north of the Border, with right-wing protests planned across Scotland.

Yousaf said yesterday he was actively considering leaving Scotland and Europe altogether, in a bid remove his wife and three children from the rising menace of racism.

Yousaf, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Pollok, said: "It has felt utterly horrendous. It is a very strange feeling about your very sense of belonging.

"I'm about as Scottish as they come - born in Scotland, raised in Scotland, educated in Scotland, just welcomed my third child here in Scotland.

"I was the leader of the Scottish Government for just over a year, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party. You cut me open and I'm as Scottish as you come. But the truth of the matter is that I don't know if the future for me, my wife and my three children is here in Scotland or the United Kingdom or indeed Europe and the West.

"I have for some time felt really worried about the rise of Islamophobia - I wrote a column about it a month ago-driven by the far right in Europe the UK and the West.

"And we are now seeing the culmination of anti-Muslim, anti-migrant rhetoric being normalised in our discourse. It's now playing out in the most horrendous, violent way possible.

"And that genuinely makes me question whether or not my family has an existence here in the UK or not." He added: "And by the way, I'm not the only one. I've had hundreds of messages from the Muslim community saying the exact same thing."