PEOPLE supported Brexit because they wanted to see fewer “different coloured faces” on the streets, a Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP has claimed.

Alex Cole-Hamilton suggested Leave voters were racist in a fringe on the opening day of his party's spring conference in Hamilton.

The Edinburgh Western MSP told the Law Society of Scotland event the 2016 vote was the result of 40 years of xenophobic “fury” stoked by a morally bankrupt tabloid press.

He also said he was confident MPs would block a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said that after doubting it would happen, he now had a renewed sense of optimism about the prospects of a People’s Vote that could prevent Brexit.

Asked by a delegate why the party didn’t show more fury over lies and alleged criminality in the referendum, he said: “This whole disaster was born out of a much older fury than the fury that we all feel now.

“It was misplaced, it was stoked up over 40 years by irresponsible and morally tabloid journalism, othering foreign nationals and blaming them for all of the social ills in our communities.

“So that people who went to the ballot box on the 23rd of June voted to leave the EU because they thought they would reduce the number of different coloured faces they would see on their street.

“Which as we know is absolutely nonsense, but it is born of that fury, that othering, that was created by the morally bankrupt tabloid press.”

He added: “I’m not going to surrender my idea of this country to those people. I believe in  a Britain that is open, tolerant, and internationalist of outlook. I have not given up on that.”

Tom Harris, the former head of the Leave campaign in Scotland, said: “To dismiss all Leave voters in Scotland as racist is making exactly the same mistake the losing Remain camp made across the UK. More than a million Scots voted Leave - far more than the rather more modest level of support that Alex’s party wins at any election. If he started listening to voters instead of insulting them, maybe he and his party might find more success.”

READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: Scotland won't be immune from Brexit's racist backlash

Earlier, Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “We have a mountain to climb. We don’t know what the coming weeks and months will mean, but I think one thing is for certain. There’s no way that we can deliver on the Brexit clock as it currently stands.

"There will be no will within parliament to see us crash out with no-deal. I am confident of that now.

"Particularly with very brave… cabinet members and other junior ministers stating that they will resign not just from the government but potentially from the Conservative Party should that be the settled will of the high command of the party.

“What does that leave us with? I think inevitably we have to ask Europe for an extension of Article 50. They have stated they would like kindly on that. But there would need to be a proposition behind it. It can’t just be two more months, or three more months of continuing stagnation and disagreement.

“I think we have to make the case to Europe that the only way to make this happen is by putting Theresa May’s deal to the people.

“So that in the solemnity of the polling stations where this all started, we can ask the British people once again, 'When you voted for Brexit is this really what you meant?'

“And if it isn’t, then you should have the option to return us to membership of the European Union.”

READ MORE: Scottish LibDems fined over 2016 election inaccuracy

Former LibDem MEP Sir Graham Watson said: “Leaving the European Union is not the will of the British people, it is the will of a government with members complicit in electoral crime and interference by foreign powers, and we have to stop it.

“I think it’s the worst thing we’ve done since AD410 when we threw out the Romans. There’s something about an island mentality.”

He said that with the clock being run down towards March 29, MPs were being offered “a choice between the Prime Minister’s vanity and Armageddon”.

He praised the forbearance of the EU27 in dealing with a confused UK government.

He said: “In 1940, Britain stood alone surrounded by enemies. Today we stand alone surrounded by friends. Their patience, their resolve, has been remarkable. What they are trying to do is coax the United Kingdom back down out of its tree. They have offered us just about everything they can offer and they’re prepared to extend the time limit. We have to get our act together.

"Brexit is not a soap opera. It is a powerful, living , daily masterclass on the perils of poor leadership and declining standards of governance, and we have to stop it.” 

John Edward, of the Scotland for a People’s Vote campaign, said the new Independent Group of breakaway Labour and Tory MPs was a “fire escape” for pro-Remain MPs to leave their parties, and could take the steam out of the rush towards March 29.

He said: “We have the one fire escape that the Independent Group has created, I think, for people who just cannot stomach the idea of a no-deal.

"I’ve said for three years that the idea that no-deal is better than a bad deal is the stupidest thing anybody has said in British politics for a very long time. The other fire escape that’s there is the People’s Vote.

“Politics is also changing. Maybe this is the wrong thing to say to party activists, but political purity to a certain extent got us in the mess we are now. So if we do anything going forward it is to leave political purity to one side, to embrace options come in working together and try and get - if the two main parties at Westminster can’t get it - try and get some other system to get us to somewhere slightly better than the mess we are in.”