Nigel Farage 'targeting Scotland next' after election victory
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: The Reform leader said Scotland will be seeing 'a lot more' of him soon.
Nigel Farage has his sights set on Holyrood after his party's election victory in England.
The Reform UK leader told the Sunday Mail that Scotland would be seeing 'much more' from him ahead of a by-election in Hamilton.
The English mayoral and local elections on Thursday saw Reform take control of 10 councils, two mayoralties and they added another MP to their ranks.
Now the party's focus will shift to Scotland for the Holyrood vote next year and the June 5 by-election in Hamilton.
Farage said: 'We now turn our attention Hamilton and Holyrood. Scotland is going to be seeing a lot more of me very soon.'
A senior Reform UK source said Farage would be welcomed in Scotland and said: 'You certainly won't see the same thing as 2013 when Nigel was locked in a pub in the Royal Mile.
'People are realising that what he is saying makes sense. The same issues that are affecting people in England - cost of living, the NHS in a mess - they are the same as in Scotland.
'I expect we could win a significant amount of seats at Holyrood with how things are going.'
They added: 'Of course [John] Swinney is in a panic, and Labour too. They haven't been shaken up like this before.'
In the last year Reform has seen a number of defections from the Scottish Tories, most prominently Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, Ross Lambie of South Lanarkshire Council and John Gray of Renfrewshire Council,
Lambie is now hoping to secure a victory the Hamilton by-election, following the death of SNP MSP Christina McKelvie in March.
Farage has said his party's wins on Thursday, a t the expense of Labour and the Tories, signalled 'the end of two-party politics' in the UK. First Minister John Swinney has said Farage represents the politics of division and vowed to stand up to him.
In April he held a summit aimed at combatting the far fight - widely regarded as an anti-Reform event.
Swinney said: 'The election result in England demonstrate that Farage is a real threat and the Labour party and conservatives have allowed this to happen by cosying up to Farage.
' The SNP is going to confront Farage because he represents the politics of division and we represent the politics of hope.
'What we have got to do is help people who feel disaffected by politics by letting them see government acting on their side that is why we will do.
'Reform are deceptive, they give people false hope, and they blame others, and the SNP will confront those politics.'
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar meanwhile is yet to address the Reform gains in England and say what he believes it means for Scotland.
Brian Leishman, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, said the Government's first 10 months 'haven't been good enough or what the people want' and warned that the next government will be 'an extreme right-wing one' if people's living standards are not improved.
But the Prime Minister has insisted there is 'tangible proof that things are finally beginning to go in the right direction', although he said he was not satisfied with where the country was.
He said: 'I am acutely aware that people aren't yet feeling the benefits. That's what they told us last night. 'Until they do, I will wake up every morning determined to go further and faster.'
The Prime Minister signalled his priorities as he pledged to deliver 'more money in your pocket, lower NHS waiting lists, lower immigration numbers'.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to make her party a 'credible' alternative once again.
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