Nigel Farage has dealt yet another blow to Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch as he visits Scotland ahead of a crunch Holyrood by-election. Reform UK is facing its first real chance of securing a seat in the Scottish Parliament this Thursday.
The South Lanarkshire seat was vacated following the death of SNP MSP Christina McKelvie. Polls consistently show Reform UK in second place in Scotland, something unimaginable for a Farage-led party 10 years ago. The by-election has shocked the Scottish political establishment, as it was thought to be a straight fight between the SNP and Labour.
The gloves have come off in the fight for the seat after Reform’s strong showing on the doorstep, with Labour leader Anas Sarwar branding Mr Farage a “pathetic little man”.
Visiting Aberdeen on Monday, the Reform UK leader dealt further blows to his opponents by unveiling yet another Tory councillor defection.
Conservative Duncan Massey is the party’s first councillor in Aberdeen and told a press conference that the country “doesn’t feel like it’s working”.
He blasted the existing border failures and took aim at net zero, which is said to be impacting thousands of jobs in Scotland.
Mr Farage also teased that he would also announce the defection of a Labour councillor in a humiliating blow to the party’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar.
Speaking in Aberdeen, the Clacton MP was joined by several prominent businessmen and women who told him of their concerns about the current net zero policy and its impact on the city.
Mr Farage boasted: “Reform has made enormous strides in Scotland over the past year. We managed to field candidates for every seat in the General Election, but to be honest, it was pretty much a paper exercise.
“Since then, we’ve managed to build branches, we’ve been contesting by-elections for councils every Thursday wherever they come up.
“We’ve had a steadily rising score. If you believe the polls over the weekend, we’re beginning to eclipse Labour as the second-most-popular party in Scottish politics, and of course we have the Hamilton by-election taking place this Thursday.”
A small group of noisy protesters at the press conference accused Reform UK of racism.
Asked by the BBC if he would apologise to Mr Sarwar for claiming the Scottish Labour leader would “prioritise the Pakistani community”, Mr Farage refused.
He hit back: “I would remind everybody that the chairman of the party is Scottish-born and comes from parents who came from the Indian subcontinent.
“We don’t talk about race at all, we think everybody should be treated equally. We object very strongly to the segmentation of people into different types. I think to be frank, Mr Sarwar has a record of obsessing on this issue.”
