An activist for Reform UK who said all illegal immigrants should be put in camps and deported has been handed a taxpayer-funded role working for the party.

Faten Hameed, who faced heavy criticism for the remarks made in a television interview, has been recruited as a member of staff working for the party’s MSPs.

Despite widespread panning of her comments, she stood as an election candidate for Reform UK but failed to secure a seat at Holyrood.

Now the Scottish parliament’s internal staff directory show she is working for the party’s MSPs and reporting to Vic Currie, Reform’s representative for Highlands and Islands.

Prior to switching to Reform, she had sought election for both Labour and the Conservatives.

The Mail also previously revealed that, despite her comments about illegal immigrants, Ms Hameed previously applied for £154,000 of public funding for a ‘comprehensive support and integration programme’ for refugees, asylum seekers and other ethnic minorities in Glasgow.

A Scottish Tory source said: ‘Hiring this crank – who called for the establishment of deportation camps despite running a charity to integrate asylum seekers – shows a staggering lack of judgment from Vic Currie.

‘Faten Hameed was a Corbynite who failed to get elected in Labour, then she joined us and once she realised we weren’t going to let her anyway near elected office she jumped to Reform and couldn’t even get elected with them.

‘But, if this is the calibre of people Reform are recruiting, the rest of us can sleep easy.’

Ms Hameed, who moved to Scotland from Iraq 30 years ago, stood for election as Reform’s candidate for Strathkelvin and Bearsden in last month’s elections.

She proposed the creation of deportation camps for illegal immigrants in an interview with Sky News last year, when she said: ‘Put them in camps and deport them.’

Ms Hameed had faced claims of hypocrisy on the issue as records show that when she was chairman of the Scottish Iraqi Association she unsuccessfully applied for £154,266 of funding from the Glasgow Communities Fund for 2026-29 ‘to deliver a comprehensive support and integration program (Sic) for marginalised Iraqi refugees, asylum seekers, and ethnic minorities in Glasgow’.

The project would have provided advice, language support, employability training, mental health workshops and cultural activities to help ‘tackle poverty, reduce social isolation, and promote equal opportunities’.

An overview of the initiative said that it ‘aligns with Glasgow’s priorities of inclusion, equalities, and poverty reduction, ensuring vulnerable groups receive the support they need to thrive’.

Reform UK previously said Ms Hameed had always been clear that ‘illegal migration must be stopped and those with no right to remain should be removed’ and that the project she had been involved in ‘focused on practical community support and reducing pressures at a local level, something that benefits both residents and authorities regardless of broader policy views’.

In last month’s Strathkelvin and Bearsden election, Ms Hameed finished fourth on 10.4 per cent of the vote behind the Lib Dems, SNP and Labour.

Ms Hameed, Mr Currie and Reform UK failed to respond to requests for comment on her new Scottish parliament role.