Latest news with #HolyroodElections
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
'We are the party of the union who stand up for Scots and want to fix our NHS and schools - NOT Reform,' says Scots Tory leader Findlay
After a bruising by-election result last Thursday, Russell Findlay faces a big week as he attempts to start the fightback for next year's Holyrood elections. The vote in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse showed the scale of the challenge for the Scottish Conservatives, with the party finishing fourth and picking up just six per cent of the vote - a lower vote share than the party even had in the constituency on its darkest night in 1997 when it was wiped off the electoral map north of the Border. The fact that Reform secured more than a quarter of the votes and finished narrowly behind Labour and the SNP worsened the blow.. But the former journalist is now preparing for one of his biggest set piece events since becoming Scottish Tory leader by 'playing Murrayfield' this weekend. He won't quite have the same audience that Oasis will command later in the summer, but the Scottish Conservative conference at the national rugby stadium will be his opportunity to respond to the twin threats of Nigel Farage 's insurgent Reform UK party and an SNP which has been in power for nearly two decades But the former journalist is now preparing for one of his biggest set piece events since becoming Scottish Tory leader by 'playing Murrayfield' this weekend. Mr Findlay, who become leader last September, acknowledges that his party was 'crowded out' in the by-election but insists that a focus on 'common sense' policies and fixing fundamental problems created by 'two decades of SNP misrule' can allow the Scottish Tories to bounce back and help remove John Swinney from office next year. Despite the SNP now being regarded as the Establishment in Scotland following 18 years in power and Reform benefiting from an anti-Establishment backlash, Mr Findlay insists that both are similar in their attempts to capitalise on the same brand of divisive nationalist politics. He said: 'Nigel Farage is just like Swinney and Sturgeon - he's a populist, he will agitate and he will seek to inflame differences between people. 'We've lived with the SNP for decades and we know their tactics, we know what they are up to: they try to pit Scot against Scot and this is what Farage is doing; he's trying to sow division.' Reflecting on the causes of the rise of Reform from nowhere to 26 per cent of the vote in last week's by-election, Mr Findlay accepts that it was partly down to many voters being 'still in no great mood to hear from our party' because 'there is a lot of disappointment with what we got wrong over our time in government' - and also cited frustration at the 'absolute chaos' of the early days of the Labour government. 'I think it has fed this sense that politics is broken, politicians are all the same, and people feel just completely scunnered and I completely get that', he said. 'I see Nigel Farage as a complete and utter chancer but I can see why people think that the parties - my party and other parties - have let them down. 'But a cold analysis of the facts show that we are the party that stands up for the Union, we are the party that stands up for hard-working Scots, we are the ones that want to fix Scots' broken education system and indeed the NHS, not Reform.' In a full throttle attack on the Reform leader, he said Mr Farage 'seems to be more friendly with Vladimir Putin than he is towards the sanctity of the United Kingdom'. 'You just have to look at the chaos engulfing that party to see that it really is a one-man ego trip,' he said. 'He is not remotely interested in Scotland. 'When his deputy (Richard Tice) turned up at a Glasgow chippy and couldn't even tell us the name of the two defectors from our party, I think that was indicative of the complete disinterest they have in Scotland. 'There are also candidates as we know at the general election who were pro-independence, there were candidates who were anti-monarchy. 'Even Nigel Farage can't work out what he is - one minute he's a free market conservative of sorts, the next minute he is a free-spending Corbynite. 'He is essentially the same as the SNP - they are both populists, they will both say anything to anyone and they will blame someone else for their own problems. It has worked for John Swinney for decades and that is what Nigel Farage is doing.' He also criticised the current push from Reform to consider whether there needs to be a ban on wearing the burqa, which engulfed the party in another major row and more infighting. Mr Findlay said: 'It really isn't a very conservative policy to start trying to tell people what they can and can't wear - I mean maybe Nigel Farage will try to ban the kilt next. 'I understand the many circumstances where face coverings are problematic, we've seen that in some of the demonstrations for example, but I think police already have the powers in place to deal with that. 'This call that his new MP (Sarah Pochin) made perhaps betrays the reality of some of the thinking within Reform. It is pretty illiberal to start dictating what you can and can't wear on the streets of Britain - we are a free country. 'It appears to have been policy made up on the hoof, it resulted in the party chairman exiting it seems, and then apparently coming back, but it is something that does not sit at all comfortably with me.' Mr Findlay said he remained largely silent as a race row erupted over Reform UK's advert claiming that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar would 'prioritise the Pakistani community', saying he didn't want to do anything to 'amplify' its video message, but believes it highlighted Reform have 'nationalist, divisive and unpleasant individuals'. Despite the significant challenge from Reform, he still believes his party can perform well in key target constituencies and on the regional list across Scotland and says he is 'fully committed in 2026 to getting the SNP out and giving Scotland the change it needs'. He rejected claims from Reform defector Thomas Kerr that the Scottish Tories are no longer interested in the central belt, saying it is 'nonsense', and vowed to start winning back voters who have stopped supporting the party. He said: 'The worry I have is that Scotland might seesaw between one form of inefficient wasteful socialist government coloured yellow to one coloured red. We really can't afford to keep putting into power these high-tax parties who have no interest in aspiration and don't have the wherewithal to stand up to the vested interests in the trade unions, for example, whether on education, health and justice. 'We need to show the people of Scotland that there is an alternative way, it doesn't have to be like this, we don't have to accept this miserable mediocrity inflicted on Scotland by the SNP. 'So many people in Scotland are conservative with a small c - they like our policies, we just need to persuade them that putting their cross in the ballot box beside our name is in their best interests.' He also railed against the 'lanyard class' who have dominated Scottish politics, saying he wants to get Holyrood working for the public rather than the politicians. With pressure already growing on the party's leader Kemi Badenoch, he insisted he still has full confidence in her leadership as they both attempt to 'reset' the relationship with the public as part of a major rebuild. While some Tory leaders have at times stayed clear from Scotland during Holyrood election campaigns, Mr Findlay insists Ms Badenoch will 'play a part' even though he will be the 'main focus' leading the push for votes. In a warning shot to plotters at Westminster or Holyrood, he said: 'I think if anyone thinks that further internal plotting is in any way helpful to our party they need their heads examined. 'We need to unite. People are not interested in politicians' or political parties' internal grievances and egos and personalities. It's about putting your shoulder to the wheel and working together to help deliver the results that we need in Holyrood next year and indeed in the next general election.' He concedes that, with the election now less than a year away, a key challenge will be getting himself known - and persuading the public he is different to the other leaders. Until 2021, he was 'deliberately anonymous' as a journalist investigating organised crime, and in 2015 he had acid thrown in his face on the doorstep of his Glasgow home by a hired hitman carrying a knife, in an attack witnessed by his young daughter 'I'm not yet a household name,' he said, although he joked: 'I have been subject to some squirmingly awful BBC parodies so maybe I've reached a sufficient level of fame in the bubble to qualify for acknowledgement.' Although he would rather the focus was on what his party stands for and would rather levels of fame or recognition were not a factor, he accepts it is 'part of modern politics' - and will try to use his own unique selling point of having had a career outside of politics to differentiate him from the other leaders and appeal to those disgruntled voters who want change at Holyrood. Mr Findlay said: 'I'd like to think that me not being a career politician is perhaps a good thing because I can see things from the perspective of ordinary people who are sick and tired of the way Holyrood doesn't address their interests or doesn't seek to fix the problems in their lives.'
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Reform is about to smash the myth of a ‘progressive' Scotland
As is the fashion these days, journalists, politicians and commentators are getting their tartan troos in a twist over the most recent polling for next year's Holyrood elections. Given Reform's narrative-changing performance at last week's local elections in England, it probably shouldn't be much of a surprise that Nigel Farage's party has enjoyed a post-poll bounce even in Scotland, where, we are regularly informed, your average voter is so progressive that he is permanently on the cusp of canonisation. Yet being more virtuous than our English neighbours has not prevented a Caledonian surge for Reform here too. A Survation poll has produced a snapshot of party support north of the border that suggests Reform could form the official opposition to the SNP government from next May. The usual caveats apply: not a prediction, things could change, margin of error, etc. This will annoy a lot of people and frighten many more. Not so much because they see in Reform's advance a repeat of German history in the 1930s – Scottish education has suffered under the SNP but it hasn't quite deteriorated that much yet – but because it looks likely that Scotland is about to endure another political earthquake that will reconfigure the political landscape. Again. Ten years ago today, Scotland woke up to the new political reality that Scottish Labour's reliable fiefdom was no more: all but one of its MPs had been removed from office in a crushing defeat by the nationalists at the UK general election. In the years that followed, the party made heroic efforts to recover, helped by the SNP's own unforced errors. Last year, most of those seats were recaptured by a new generation of Labour MPs. But discontent with Keir Starmer's administration has been widespread and Scotland has not reverted to the way it was in the '70s through to the noughties, when voters would reliably vote Labour whatever the national UK mood. A friendly and sensible Labour MP pointed out to me recently that the threat to UK Labour from Reform is similar to the threat the SNP poses to Scottish Labour: voters in large parts of the country would be unlikely to countenance voting Tory, however unhappy they might be at Labour. But when an electorally viable alternative arrives on the scene… well, all bets are off. And it is Scottish Labour and its leader at Holyrood, Anas Sarwar, who will feel most worried by the latest poll. When Humza Yousaf, the SNP's Liz Truss tribute act, was first minister, Sarwar enjoyed the unusual experience of being the most likely person to succeed him in Bute House, the official residence of the head of government in Scotland. But Yousaf's replacement by the dull, reliable and 'nice' John Swinney has steadied the SNP ship and the party has been leading in every poll since then. The prospect of being replaced by Reform as the main opposition in even a single poll is exactly the kind of blow to personal and party morale that Sarwar could do without. Starmer repeatedly insisted, before last year's general election, that his path to Downing Street ran through Scotland. He was right. But if he's still right, that could mean the path to Downing Street is being paved for the benefit of a rather different political leader. Does this poll mean that Scots are suddenly dangerously Right wing – or even 'far Right' as Swinney has often warned – and are emulating their southern compatriots' alleged intolerance of high levels of immigration? Put it this way: the only time I had a voter tell me that 'Enoch was right' was not in a housing estate in London, Birmingham or Leicester; it was in Glasgow. From a Labour voter. The fact that for, decades, Scots generally voted for parties perceived as Left-wing, progressive and tolerant, effectively hid the frustration felt across many areas of Scotland, particularly in the sprawling housing estates where Labour used to trawl for support. The resentment against the influx of asylum seekers, sent northwards by the Home Office to Labour-run Glasgow, the only Scottish local authority that had agreed to be part of the asylum dispersal scheme, was real and it was loud. And political parties ignored it. It has been pointed out often but it's worth reiterating: it is the poorest communities, the ones with the fewest employment opportunities, the lowest quality of housing and schools, the fewest community facilities, that are more likely to resent new arrivals, especially if they arrive in large numbers. This is true across the whole of the UK, and Scotland is not exempt. But our politicians chose not to acknowledge this, at least publicly. The myth of the welcoming, progressive Scot who is only too happy to hold placards declaring 'refugees welcome here' was propagated and repeated, however little attention was paid to the fact that a lot of those placard wavers headed home afterwards to their comfortable, middle class homes and their comfortable middle class jobs, separated from the affected communities by a comfortable middle class distance. And suddenly in Scotland it's no longer socially unacceptable – or at least, not as socially unacceptable – to admit to being a Reform voter, especially if the central aim of placing that cross on the ballot paper is not to object to immigration, but to protest at the complacency of the establishment. I know at least two members of my former local Labour Party who intend to exercise their frustration at their party by doing exactly that. Scottish Labour thought the nightmare of 2015 was over. It may be about to be repeated.
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Vote Farage, get Swinney...rise of Reform set to split pro-Union vote, new poll reveals
Nigel Farage is on course to help hand John Swinney another five years in government - with Reform UK as the biggest opposition party. A bombshell new poll yesterday revealed Reform has surged into second place with one year to go until the Holyrood elections and is now projected to secure 21 seats. The rise in support for Reform largely comes at the expense of other pro-Union parties - and could lead to the SNP and Greens securing a pro-independence majority. The new poll was published as party leaders marked one year to go until the Holyrood elections. Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay yesterday claimed John Swinney is 'thrilled' by the rise of Mr Farage's party - and that the Reform UK leader would 'gladly gift the SNP another five years'. He also said that the result would be 'catastrophic' for Scotland and put independence 'back on the table' - as Mr Swinney claimed a majority of MSPs supporting separation would be a mandate for another referendum. Speaking at a Scottish Tory event in Edinburgh, Mr Findlay said: 'If the SNP win next year, I worry for Scotland. Our country will again be divided by nationalism, the base politics of populism. 'That is why every single day, my party stands up to them as we've done for 18 years. But not everybody understands this, not everyone is worried as I am about an SNP win. 'Nigel Farage isn't worried. He's said so himself, he said, and this is a direct quote, he's 'not that worried about the SNP'. Nigel Farage also says he would rather put the SNP into power at Holyrood than a pro-UK party. 'He would gladly gift the SNP another five years in power.' He said Mr Swinney is 'thrilled' by Reform and wants to help them, and claimed he publicly pretends to despise the party when he actually 'adores them' because the SNP 'always promote a political bogeyman instead of doing the hard work of good governance'. Mr Findlay said: 'When I think about next year, my first thought is not what will happen to my party, it's what will happen to my country if Nigel Farage hands John Swinney another five years in power.' He pledged to never back Mr Swinney or an SNP government, and added: 'I'm here to get rid of the SNP for the good of my country, Nigel Farage is happy to let them win for the good of his party.' The Survation poll of 1,020 Scots for True North, carried out over May 2-5, puts the SNP ahead on the constituency vote with 33 per cent, followed by Reform and Labour in second place on 19 per cent, then the Conservatives and Lib Dems on 11 per cent. On the regional list, the SNP is on 29 per cent, Reform on 20 per cent, Labour 18 per cent, the Conservatives on 12 per cent, Lib Dems 10 per cent, Greens 9 per cent and Alba 3 per cent. According to a projection by pollster Sir John Curtice, the result would mean the SNP would secure 58 seats, with Reform on 21, Labour 18, Conservatives 13, Lib Dems 10, and Greens eight. Asked what the impact would be of Mr Swinney securing another five years with a pro-independence majority and Reform as the biggest opposition party, Mr Findlay said: 'Inevitably, independence would be back on the table - not that it was ever really off the table. That would continue to dominate.' He said the prospect 'fills me with dread' and would be 'catastrophic for Scotland'. He refused to say whether he would stand down if his party finishes below Reform. When asked if he would debate Mr Farage, Mr Findlay said: 'If Nigel Farage knows where Scotland is he knows where to find me.' At another event yesterday to mark 12 months to the election, Mr Swinney claimed the Labour government is 'dancing to Farage's tune on immigration', and said: 'At Westminster, Nigel Farage may not be in office - but he is very much in power.' He said the SNP 'will never do any deals with Farage' and that 'only the SNP will confront Farage and defeat Farage'. He later claimed Mr Farage's politics would push more Scots towards independence, saying he is a 'different kettle of fish' to Tory leaders like Boris Johnson and the 'antithesis of kindness'. The SNP leader also claimed that a 'democratic majority' of pro-independence MSPs at Holyrood following the next election should result in another referendum. Thomas Kerr, Reform councillor for Shettleston, said: 'As all political parties gear up towards Holyrood 2026, Reform UK does so with a spring in our step and passion in our hearts. 'We know Scotland is broken and those SNP and Labour politicians who broke it will be held accountable next year. There's a lot of ground to cover, a lot of scrutiny to come but Reform UK is ready for the challenge ahead. 'To our opponents, we say, bring it. Scotland badly needs real fundamental change and only Reform UK will fix the mess the mainstream establishment parties have created. 'As today's Survation poll shows, Reform UK is the only political party in Scotland with momentum and now the clear opposition to this rotten SNP Government.'
