Here's what will work – and what won't – if we're going to stop Reform

The National

10-06-2025

It resonates with millions of people because it speaks to the way they feel, that 'nothing works properly anymore', and it forces Nigel Farage's opponents on to ground they do not want to inhabit, namely agreeing with him.
Writing in the Daily Express on May 28, the former BBC politics presenter and Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil predicted Farage is 'on the cusp of power' and set to become the next prime minister.
Financial Times columnist Robert Shrimsley was a little more circumspect two days later on Farage's prospects, but nonetheless agreed Reform are 'the beneficiary of a historic Tory collapse at a time when the Labour Government has rapidly become unpopular'.
Reform, insisted Shrimsley, are now attempting to place themselves in the 'electoral sweet spot' of social conservatism and leftist economics.
Prime Minister Keir StarmerFarage attracts those who see the enemy of my enemy as my friend. Voters who hold Keir Starmer and the Tories (and the SNP) responsible for 'breaking' Britain/Scotland, opt for the person the political establishment apparently hates most.
Farage's politics are, of course, those of 'protest'. Yet as the saying goes, any fool can burn down a barn. It takes brains to construct solutions and remove persistent obstacles.
Starmer, meanwhile, continues perversely to be Farage's biggest recruiting sergeant.
The Prime Minister – who never visited Hamilton despite being in the vicinity last week – claimed Davy Russell's win for Scottish Labour was a vote for 'change'. You couldn't make it up! That's the one thing it doesn't represent.
The surprise if brief resignation of Bellshill-born Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf was interpreted by some commentators as a sign of the implosion long predicted for Farage's party.
His return just two days later somehow amplified the volatility and deep-seated divisions within the party between its hardliners and those like Yusuf who wish to move it more towards the centre.
READ MORE: 'What is our vision?': Inside the quiet anger brewing within the SNP
Reform are, of course, a mass of such contradictions. Their ranks are made up largely of former Tory members from the right of that party, while their electoral base is provided mainly by former Labour voters.
A party that faces far right on immigration and law and order, for example, and occasionally leftward – on nationalisation, sacking fat cat bosses at Thames Water, and claims to be 'the party of working people' – is not just opportunist, it is organically unstable.
Reform UK now has hundreds of inexperienced councillors running dozens of local authorities, as well as a brace of new mayors who are expected to deliver on the promises made to the electorate in May.
But they won't, of course.
Reform's record in office will come under intense scrutiny with inevitable consequences.
Let's not forget that Farage's two previous political iterations, Ukip and the Brexit Party, also imploded amid bitter acrimony.
The Reform which was seen on the streets after the Southport stabbings in July last year, for example, belongs to the far right of any spectrum.
Furthermore, parties like his that grow too fast tend to come unstuck just as quickly. The SNP are a case in point, with membership now one-third of the size it was in the aftermath of the 2014 independence referendum.
Without a clear ideological grounding, Reform are just as vulnerable to the iron law of politics that insists there must be a unique material reason for their existence.
To stop Reform, you need to combat the reasons for their rise. Tony Blair once airily promised to be 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime', admittedly to no avail.
Intelligent analysis of the reasons behind Farage's popularity – and indeed Starmer's unpopularity – must surely be the starting point for any successful strategy to halt their advance. So the question is do we, as Reform UK's opponents, merely coalesce around a 'Stop Farage' coalition as First Minister John Swinney advocates? No, certainly not.
First Minister John Swinney (Image: PA) That would be fatal for it would be seen by the wider electorate as aligning with those responsible for the failures inherent in that 'Broken Britain' sentiment. That kind of mindless 'popular front' achieves nothing.
Do we instead confront the concerns voters have about the fact Britain is 'broken?' Yes, we do.
Do we campaign for an alternative programme that addresses the real concerns voters have on the economy, the state of the NHS, social care, education, the climate, law and order and independence? Yes. Exactly that. In other words, we confront the causes of Reform as well as Reform itself.
Periods of acute political polarisation like this one offer opportunities for those bold enough to seize them.
The anti-poll tax campaign, the anti-war movement, and the Palestinian cause today, are classic examples of this phenomenon.
Above all, however, those of us on the left of politics need to encourage Scotland's working-class majority to get more involved in campaigns and initiatives that are aimed at securing improvements in the quality of life they want for themselves and their children.