Will Scotland ride the 'Farage tsunami' at the Hamilton by-election like England has with Reform?
Nigel Farage has a track record of noisy, messy campaign visits to Scotland.
After being famously hounded out of an Edinburgh pub in 2013, on Monday came the Aberdeen media conference in a fish restaurant to the soundtrack of "Farage is a racist" chants outside from the small, but vocal crowd.
"We've not had this (protests) for a long time," Mr Farage tells me while the cameras are setting up for our Sky News interview.
Mr Farage came to northeast Scotland with a spring in his step as Reform UK surges in the Scottish polls. One even suggests his party could become the official opposition to the SNP in Holyrood in 2026. A humiliating prospect for Labour and the Conservatives.
The Reform leader has notably pivoted his attacks on the "Scottish establishment" in recent weeks as a by-election looms in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
SNP chief John Swinney is churning out almost daily press releases about Mr Farage claiming he "doesn't care about Scotland", meanwhile Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar branded the Reform boss a "pathetic little man".
This week's by-election will be a barometer of where Reform support potentially sits more nationally. The SNP and Labour are privately nervous.
But Scotland, it seems, is not riding the same "Farage tsunami" as England.
He alleges he is capitalising on the disenfranchisement in Scottish politics at the moment, yet the polls suggest the SNP could still storm to power again next year and enter their third decade in power.
Mr Sarwar and Mr Farage have been at loggerheads in a bitter war of words over an old speech the Scottish Labour leader gave, where he talked about minority communities. There is no doubt that Reform has taken that footage out of context as part of a political game.
10:53
Mr Farage is playing down Reform's chances, saying his party is a "teenager that hasn't reached maturity yet". Is that code for dodging scrutiny on policy detail?
Sir Keir Starmer would be humiliated by defeat from a "teenager" this week in Scotland.
It would have been inconceivable Mr Farage would have been taking up so much political bandwidth even a year ago in Scotland given the country notoriously rejected his politics for more than a decade.
It is a remarkable charge in narrative, but Reform is yet to win any major seat north of the border.
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BBC News
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- BBC News
'My credit score has been destroyed by fake energy debt'
A woman who had a prepayment meter forcibly installed in her home over a debt she did not owe says her credit score is still ruined years Asante – a church pastor – spent years battling with Scottish Power over a non-existent debt before the company apologised and wiped the remaining balance last Favour says her credit score is still ruined due to the false debt and she remains unable to get a credit card or take out a phone Power said it had removed the credit markers against Favour's record last year but she is concerned her score could take years to recover. The energy firm said: "We've shared with credit reference agencies that she has a prepayment meter with a zero balance, which should have a positive impact on her credit score."The error began when Scottish Power wrongly believed she owed them more than £2,000, which eventually led to the firm forcibly installing a prepayment meter into her Glasgow home in late 2022, while she was out of the country visiting was later discovered that the false debt had arisen because Scottish Power had wrongly opened and closed multiple accounts in her name. The company has since recognised the mistakes, apologised and wiped the Favour said she remains unable to take out a loan, phone contract or get a credit card because of the default on her account. It comes as thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts, and could see debts written off, in response to widespread controversy over the force-fitting of prepayment meters into people's announcement last month followed a review by the energy regulator Ofgem, and could see eligible customers receiving payments starting at £40 and rising up to £1, years, energy companies were allowed to force-fit prepayment meters into people's homes when bills went unpaid but a scandal erupted during the energy cost crisis of 2022 when suppliers were found to have forced the meters on vulnerable intense criticism, Ofgem introduced a moratorium on forced installations in 2023 but allowed companies to restart the practice less than a year later – albeit with stricter rules in place to protect vulnerable customers who have been affected by the practice of force-fitting prepayment meters over the years have told BBC Scotland News that the compensation payments do not compare with how heavily their lives were impacted. Favour told the BBC: "It's really affected me emotionally, financially, and it's also ruined my credit score because a bill that wasn't mine was forced into my name and given to the credit agencies."For the last six years I have been on the list for not getting any credit from anywhere due to that."My credit score has been ruined, I can't apply for anything at the moment. What I've been through compared with £1,000 is not enough."Favour said she no longer trusts energy companies after the ordeal. 'No compassion' The review from Ofgem into this practice had an assessment period of 1 January 2022 to 31 January 2023, meaning Favour could be eligible for compensation. But many other customers may not has epilepsy and asthma and says that a long-running disagreement with her energy company at the time had a severe impact on her 34-year-old nursing student told the BBC she was so distressed by having a prepayment meter forcibly installed into her home that she had multiple seizures which resulted in who lived in a one-bedroom council flat in Fife at the time, says her then-energy supplier Npower increased her monthly bills from £60 a month in 2014 to about £200 - and said she had a debt of about £1, disputed this which led to a row that would continue for another three claims that a wiring issue with her storage heating meant that it was turning on when it shouldn't have been, including when she was at work. When she called Npower to ask them to assess the issue the company was "really forceful and harassing" and "threatening with bailiffs"."They had no compassion or consideration that there was clearly a huge issue for a one-bedroom flat," she said several appointments were made for the firm to visit and investigate an issue with the heating, but nobody showed up. 'It was torture' Then, in 2017, she returned home from work to find that her flat had been broken into and a prepayment meter installed."They couldn't attend to check my meter but they could attend to force entry into my house," she said."I was having a lot of seizures at the time because of the stress. It really freaked me out and made me feel so unsafe."Energy firm has since acquired Npower and Rebekah says that her debt was finally written off in December 2024 after she applied for a winter heating scheme for vulnerable she believes that even if she were to receive compensation, it would not be enough."It was a constant battle," she said."I had to miss work countless times due to the seizures. I'd end up with horrific injuries."And yes, my debt has now been wiped off and I'm grateful for that, but the stress of it was torture."An Next spokesperson said: "While this case predates our acquisition of Npower and Rebekah was not an customer at the time, we are pleased that we have since been able to offer direct support and resolve the issue for her." Organisations such as Citizens Advice Scotland have long-opposed the practice of forced installations even prior to it catching headlines in 2022, and raised particular concerns around safeguards in place for vulnerable a 62-year-old cleaner from Hamilton, told the BBC she remains affected to this day by having a prepayment meter forced into her home in 2015."I was a single mother, working-part time on minimum wage, and came in from work one day right before Christmas to see an envelope with new keys in it," she said. "They'd broken in and put a prepayment meter in."Susan said she had fallen into debt of about £3,500 with energy provider EDF after struggling with the death of her father alongside having a disability and mental health issues."I know it was my fault for racking up the debt and I buried my head in the sand, but they never gave me the option to pay it off in instalments at all and I didn't know they'd break in when I wasn't there," she said."It was so upsetting because I couldn't talk to anybody about it and I was embarrassed about the debt. I didn't want my family to know."Susan thinks there are not enough protections in place to support vulnerable customers who find themselves in debt, and says she would have agreed to a repayment plan if she had been made aware it was an said: "If they'd have told me they were coming, I would have arranged to take time off work so that at least there wouldn't be people in my house when I wasn't there."I'm not vulnerable now like I was then, I am doing much better, but there were not measures in place to protect vulnerable people."It was just awful. They could see that a kid lived here, that it was Christmas. What a time of year to do that to somebody."Susan said because prepayment meters are generally more expensive than other payment methods, her bills are a "fortune" and she is still paying off the debt to this has been approached for comment. Distressing cases As of 2024, Ofgem has introduced rules which means companies cannot force-fit meters if an occupant of the house is over 75 with no other support, is under two years old, needs energy for health reasons, or suffers from a chronic or terminal Vyas, chief executive of Energy UK, which represents energy firms, said suppliers had been working closely with Ofgem to meet the regulator's requirements, but said there were instances where forced fittings were Advice Scotland director of impact David Hilferty said the compensation scheme is welcome said: "We have always opposed forced installations as they take away people's choice, pushing them to pay money upfront which they often can't afford."Our network has seen many distressing cases over the years of people who have been forced to disconnect their heating supply or go into debt as a result of this, so it's right that they should be compensated."What's important now is that suppliers deliver this compensation quickly and do the right thing for those who have experienced unnecessary harm."
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Polls to open in Hamilton by-election
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Daily Mail
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£350k boss at cash-strapped Scots university claims he 'doesn't know salary'
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