FAR-RIGHT agitators intent on fabricating paedophile fears to target refugees were faced down on the streets of Paisley today.

A group with links to the far right calling itself Fighting Justice Against Predators has for weeks been using social media to spread misinformation and fear, posting images of men they claimed were photographing young people near schools and play areas.

Group members, including some who in 2023 engaged in the year-long bid to intimidate refugees housed at an Erskine hotel, planned to bring their campaign to a crescendo with a rally outside the Watermill Hotel in Paisley, itself used to house people seeking asylum.

Refused permission to target the hotel, they instead chose the town’s plaza.

But a Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) counterdemonstration faced the fascists down, with speakers describing first-hand experience of fighting the far right and songs from Cabaret Against Hate’s Tom Harlow.

Addressing the rally, Alex, a domestic abuse worker, said: “I know the reality for many young women across Scotland — we know that services are often failing people.

“In a way it’s understandable how people are brought towards groups like that: that’s what makes them so dangerous.

“It is so dangerous when people try to say there’s an easy answer, but it’s people like us here today who are fighting cuts to services — it’s people here today that know that when we scapegoat one group of people who are supposedly abusive in society, it lets off the hook all other abusers.”

Claire, a careworker, said: “They are trying to divide communities and spread the most vile bile and hatred rather than try to bring people together. 

“But it’s not going to work, because there’s much more of us than them. We need to remember that.”