Protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers are racist, Scotland’s First Minister has said.

In recent months, hundreds of people have assembled outside hotels to voice their opposition to the housing of asylum seekers, with some carrying banners calling for the deaths of those crossing the English Channel on small boats.

John Swinney marched through Glasgow with the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) alongside other political leaders on Saturday before speaking at a rally decrying racism and the far-right.

Swinney was joined by Labour leader Anas Sarwar and independent Falkirk councillor Laura Murtagh, who has opposed the protests in her town and called for exclusion zones to be set up around the hotels to push protests away.

The First Minister refused to commit to such a move, bu

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