A CANDIDATE has been deselected and kicked out of his party for alleged controversial posts on social media about refugees.

Steen Parish was third on the Scottish Green Party's West Scotland regional list for the upcoming Scottish Parliament election.

The 51-year-old has accused first place candidate Ross Greer and Dunbartonshire branch co-convener Sean Quinn, of leading a secret political clique against him for his Eurosceptic views.

Mr Parish was shown the door after a disciplinary hearing on March 16 for airing controversial views about the refugee crisis in Scandinavia.

A senior party insider said it was nothing to do with Euroscepticism and slammed Parish as coming up with a "conspiracy theory". The source said he was promoting views that goes against the party's stance on the refugee crisis.

Steen Parish told the Post: "I am deeply offended by the actions of a small cabal of party members who have conspired for months to have me expelled from the Green Party, simply because they disagree with me.”

In September last year, Mr Parish said he accidentally shared online articles from undesirable and improper sources and then deleted them when he had realised.

But months down the line he was summoned to the to the party's "council" in March to hear he would be thrown out for making the posts.

Steen Parish told the Post: "These were articles that I reposted from a number of sources. I also posted links to articles critical of the handling of the migrant crisis, as well as the impact migration is having on Denmark and Sweden.

"At the time, I accepted that three of these articles were from unacceptable sources and I deleted them. I heard nothing further from the party in any official capacity until this month, when I was notified of an official complaint."

However, on Sunday (April 3) Mr Parish retweeted an article about "10 out of 10" refugees apparently refusing rural housing in Denmark.



Mr Parish's translated Tweet.

He lambasted the party and insisted the secret political clique led by Ross Greer and Dunbartonshire branch co-convener had caused it.

The 21-year-old Greer is an up-and-coming figure in the Scottish Green Party and would be the youngest ever MSP if elected in May.

In 2011, Steen Parish contested the West Scotland list as the number one candidate — which Ross Greer occupies at the moment.

Parish has stood to represent the public in parliament and council-level on a number of occasions over the last eight years.

He continued: "The Scottish Greens say they embrace equality, tolerance, openness and transparency. From what I have experienced, when it comes to personal views that do not follow the party line, the Greens are intolerant and closed to any debate.

"Over the last few months, I have also discovered that I was excluded from official candidate mailing lists and as a result have been kept in the dark on events happening in the region."

However, the senior party source said: "Steen was posting some nasty stuff about refugees and the effects they're supposedly having on European countries. A few of the posts were from seriously dodgy sources as well.

"For him to say this is about being pro or anti EU is downright dishonest. He was expelled for promoting views on refugees which are totally in opposition to those of the party. You can't expect to be a member of any organisation whilst publicly contradicting its core principles. Instead of facing up to that he's come up with this conspiracy theory. One look at the guy's twitter account makes it pretty clear that the party took the right decision."

The ex-member insisted it was due to his rebel stance against the EU that provoked the campaign against him.

When the Clydebank Post asked the Greens about the claims, spokeswoman Claire Daly said: "A complaint was made regarding a potential candidate for the West of Scotland list and has been resolved through our internal procedures. This is an internal party matter.

"Our focus is firmly on electing the West of Scotland's first Green MSP, something which opinion polling and the response to our campaigners in Clydebank suggests is firmly within our grasp."

