Sturgeon in hustings co-hosted by Mend

Nicola Sturgeon and other Scottish political leaders have appeared in a hustings co-staged by the Muslim advocacy organisation Mend, which has long been accused of having links to extremists and hosting figures who have made inflammatory statements about Jews and terrorism.

Earlier this year, Mend joined up with Cage — a campaign group widely accused of having sympathised with terrorists, including Isis killer Jihadi John — to criticise the government’s counter-terror strategy.

In 2017 Mend’s director of engagement, Azad Ali, wrote on Facebook that the attack on Parliament in March that year, in which six were killed, was “a lone wolf act and not terrorism”. Mr Ali claimed at the time that his remarks had been “taken out of [their] overall context” and his lawyers have said Mr Ali regarded the Westminster attack as a barbarous and cruel act of murder for which there was no possible justification or mitigation.

In 2014, Mend’s then-CEO Sufiyan Ismail claimed that “in 300 years the Israeli lobby has not lost a vote in Parliament”.