FEMALE pro-independence supporters yesterday distanced themselves from Hope Over Fear (HOF) due to fears it is a front group for Tommy Sheridan.
Campaigners warned voters about a supposedly grassroots movement they believe is a vehicle for rehabilitating the career of the convicted perjurer.
HOF hosted an unlicensed event in George Square yesterday to mark the one year anniversary of the independence referendum. However, although HOF badges itself as an apolitical pro-independence group, it is widely viewed as an organisation created solely to promote Sheridan, who wants to get back to Holyrood next year.
The disgraced former MSP was jailed in 2011 after being convicted of telling lies about his appearance at a swingers’ club in Manchester. Over the course of two trials, Sheridan was content for former lovers to be cross-examined and denounced them as liars for talking about their sexual liaisons with him. As a result, the mainstream Yes movement shunned the convicted criminal last year and treated him as a pariah.
His former comrades lined up to sound a note of caution about HOF.
Rosie Kane, a former SSP MSP, said: “Tommy is a dangerous liar. Hope Over Fear is being used as a vehicle to promote him, and his supporters are doing it in a very clandestine way. People will find out the hard way about him. If you don’t do what he wants, he comes down on you like a ton of bricks.”
Sandra Webster, the co-spokesperson of the SSP, said: “As a woman involved in politics, I am aware of the history of the person behind Hope Over Fear and how he treated female comrades and women in politics. I would not share a platform with him.”
Former MSP Frances Curran MSP said: “I understand why people want to get together to celebrate the Yes campaign, but Hope Over Fear is a front for Tommy Sheridan. He is the most divisive figure in the Yes movement ... I’d be interested to know where the money is coming from.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens also criticised Sheridan: “The referendum campaign unleashed such amazing energy across the country so it’s a shame to see Tommy Sheridan attempting to exploit that for his personal electoral benefit. In over a decade he has failed to apologise for the pain and hurt he caused so many people, which is why Yes Scotland, Radical Independence and many others would not have him, a position we supported then and continue to now.”
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