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Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EUAN McCOLM: Farage might have offended liberal Scots but he isn't screaming into a void when it comes to immigration
So much for Nigel Farage, the daring swashbuckler of modern politics. The Reform leader styles himself the fearless defender of the priorities of ordinary people, the renegade who takes on vested interests while declaring uncomfortable truths. But Mr Farage's brio departed him during a visit to Scotland on Monday when he ducked out of a press event called by his own party. The Reform leader had travelled north in advance of Thursday's Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse by-election and the media was told to expect access to a 'walkabout' he'd be doing with candidate Ross Lambie. However, details of the event remained unforthcoming and Mr Farage later posted photos online showing him strolling through Larkhall with Mr Lambie, untroubled by the scrutiny of the press. Perhaps Mr Farage was reticent to spend more time with my colleagues from the Holyrood lobby on Monday after an earlier press conference turned rather ugly. Last week, the Reform leader defended his party's creation of a Facebook ad which claimed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar had declared the needs of the Scottish Pakistani community his priority. Challenged over this untrue claim at a press conference in Aberdeen on Monday morning, Mr Farage doubled down, wrongly stating Mr Sarwar had said the south Asian community was 'going to take over the world'. 'To be frank,' said the Reform leader, 'Mr Sarwar has a record of obsessing on this issue. There was the famous speech that he gave in the Scottish Parliament saying, why is the judiciary white? Why are, you know, these leading figures in Scotland white? 'It was the most extraordinary speech given the statistics and figures here. Actually, I think that speech that he gave was sectarian in its very nature.' This was both deeply unfair and wildly reckless. Mr Sarwar has always been a strong advocate for integration, for the breaking down of barriers between those of different races and religions. If he has talked pointedly about race, it has been to describe his personal experience. This is something he has done with courage and dignity. Mr Sarwar's interventions on the subjects of race and religion have been thoughtful and constructive and his opponents across Holyrood would not disagree. What Mr Farage said will only fuel the anger of those who already despise Mr Sarwar for his race. None of that matters to Reform, of course. The truth of what Mr Sarwar may have said in the past was less important than an opportunity to exploit a much undiscussed aspect of Scotland - concern over immigration. A report published by Migration Policy Scotland last year revealed that more than 40 per cent of Scots would like to see a reduction in the numbers of immigrants permitted to enter and remain in the United Kingdom. This might be a minority but it is a substantial one and none of the mainstream parties have been willing to go anywhere near the concerns of these people. On Monday, Mr Farage may have deeply offended liberal sensibilities but he also spoke loudly and clearly to a lot of voters who feel ignored by both the SNP and Scottish Labour. For a long time, the approach adopted by Scottish politicians to tackling Mr Farage was to treat him as an irrelevance. He was nothing more than the living representation of the differences between Scottish and English 'values'. But, despite the best efforts of the SNP to shape a narrative of some fundamental difference between the moralities of the Scots and the English, on issues such as immigration people think very much alike, regardless of which side of the border they live on. Without pandering to the Reform leader, First Minister John Swinney, Anas Sarwar, and Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay will have to find way of talking to voters about some of the questions he raises. Mr Farage is not screaming into a void. Of course, every racist would like to see immigration reduced but that does not mean everyone who would like to see immigration reduced is a racist. If the leaders of the traditional parties do not make this distinction, they will continue to leave this issue ripe for exploitation by the populist right. Support for Reform is not, however, fuelled solely by anger over immigration. Nigel Farage is currently benefiting from the powerful, if rather nebulous, idea that he is the sort of person required to 'shake up' politics. In common with the late Alex Salmond, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and US President Donald Trump, Mr Farage has the status, among his supporters, of outsider. He's the anti-establishment firebrand who'll put an end to the rotten politics that has failed them for years. John Swinney must, I'm sure, recognise the dark irony of this. In the years before the SNP won its first Holyrood election in 2007, it carefully styled itself a fresh alternative to a stale Labour party that had lost touch with the people it represented. Nationalist leader Alex Salmond used the same rhetoric, of voters 'failed' by the complacent parties of the mainstream, now so effectively deployed by Mr Farage. In a couple of days we'll know whether Reform's Ross Lambie has pulled off what would be the most astonishing election victory in the history of the Scottish Parliament. Both the SNP and Scottish Labour remain publicly confident they can take the seat, made vacant by the untimely death of sitting SNP MSP Christina McKelvie, but both are privately concerned about the extent to which Reform will eat up votes on which they could previously have depended. Election analyst Professor Sir John Curtice reckons the chances of a Reform victory on Thursday slender. He predicts an SNP hold, on a reduced majority. But Sir John warns Labour, if its vote share heavily declines, faces the humiliation of coming third behind Mr Farage's party. Victory in this week's by-election is not essential for Reform. With less than a year to go until the next Holyrood election, the party will be happy with a result that suggests momentum. As things stand, that looks all but guaranteed. Reform stands to pick up a number of Scottish Parliamentary seats next May. On current polling, no party would have an overall majority, leading to the prospect of any government having to depend, on some matters, on the votes of Reform MSPs. Having caused a political revolution as the leading figure in the Brexit campaign, Nigel Farage is now on the brink of wielding considerable power and influence in Scotland.
Daily Record
9 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Record
Farage flies in for Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse by-election visit ahead of polling day
The Reform leader visited Larkhall with candidate Ross Lambie but an expected walkabout in Hamilton did not take place Nigel Farage arrived in Larkhall for a much-heralded campaign visit as the leaders of all three main parties battling out the Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse by-election made their final appeals to voters ahead of Thursday's polling day. The Reform leader had a drink with locals at the Central Bar on Union Street and visited neighbouring businesses including a butcher and florist as he campaigned alongside candidate Ross Lambie and deputy party leader Richard Tice, with the trio later visiting their headquarters in Hamilton. Chaotic scenes developed in the town centre as Mr Farage did not appear for a planned walkabout and press call in Hamilton, while groups of Reform supporters and protesters then clashed in vocal and angry arguments outside the Quarry Street office with the party leader having already departed. Reform candidate Ross Lambie, a Clydesdale councillor, shared images of the Larkhall visit on social media and called it a 'great day on the campaign trail', posting on Facebook and X: 'Absolute pleasure to show Nigel around Larkhall for a pint of Tennents, a visit to the fruit n veg shop and the award-winning Strachan's craft butchers.' 'We then popped into to the Hamilton campaign office and visited Raeburn brick factory in Hamilton – the last in Scotland, suffering under crippling energy prices' which he attributed to 'Net Zero madness'. Mr Lambie added: 'The buzz on the streets of Larkhall was epic. For the first time in 18 years they have some hope of real change with Reform.' Mr Farage had earlier told a press conference in Aberdeen that a Reform win in Thursday's Holyrood by-election would be 'the biggest earthquake Scottish politics has probably ever seen', saying: 'Are we confident of coming third? Yes. Are we confident of coming second? Well, I don't know. If we do, it'll be a very nice surprise.' He later told The Times during the Larkhall visit: 'Can we come a good second? I believe we can.' Speaking in Aberdeen, he said: 'Do I realistically think we can win? Well, if we do, then that will be the biggest earthquake Scottish politics has probably ever seen. You never know. On a low turnout election with a disenchanted electorate, I guess it's not impossible, but I think it's improbable.' Asked about Reform's widely-criticised campaign adverts incorrectly stating that Anas Sarwar would 'prioritise the Pakistani community' and cutting to a speech by the Labour leader in which he does not make that statement, he said: '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.' The social media adverts were described as 'blatantly racist' by both Labour and the SNP, and the opposing groups clashing in Hamilton town centre on Monday afternoon included protestors displaying 'no to racism' banners. First minister John Swinney of the SNP and Labour counterpart Mr Sarwar were also in the constituency on the same day, respectively visiting Juniors play cafe in Hamilton and launching a campaign vehicle in support of their candidates Katy Loudon and Davy Russell. The intensive final week of campaigning has also seen visits from deputy first minister Kate Forbes and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner; while both party leaders have this week written open letters to voters seeking their support in the hotly-contested Holyrood race. Mr Swinney told supporters at a Hamilton rally on Saturday: 'Farage's rise at this moment is because of the profound disappointment that people feel in the Westminster Labour government, whose first act when they came into office was to take Winter Fuel Payments away from pensioners in our community. 'We are the party of hope in this election, and what the people of Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse face on Thursday is a very simple choice. 'The Labour campaign is collapsing. They are out of it. Their candidate and their campaign cannot be a champion for this community. Farage is a real threat – do not underestimate the scale of the threat that Farage poses in this election. 'The only way the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse can be confident that they will be voting for hope is by voting for the Scottish National Party to stop Farage and to vote for a better Scotland and a better future.' Mr Sarwar told constituents: 'This by-election is a two-horse race between Scottish Labour and the SNP. Reform can't win here and the SNP don't deserve to win here' – and invited voters to support 'one of your own, Davy Russell, a local champion that will fight every minute of every day for you'. He added: 'Reform have tried every dirty trick in the book to drive a wedge through this community. [They] have spent thousands of pounds spreading bile, misinformation and racial slurs.' Visiting Hamilton last week, Ms Rayner called criticism of the Labour candidate's campaign performance – including declining to take part in a TV debate – 'absolutely classist' and said: 'He's a hard grafter and he doesn't deserve to be treated in that way, in a classist way, but I am sure he is going to prove them all wrong.' The final days of campaigning also saw Scottish Socialist candidate Collette Bradley criticise prime minister Sir Keir Starmer's announcement in Glasgow of new increased defence spending plans, calling 'the declaration of a war economy' and 'an outrageous choice of priorities'. She said: 'The £15 billion thrown at manufacturers of ever more deadly weapons and nuclear annihilation far exceeds the (maximum) £3.5bn cost of scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the £1.5bn to restore universal winter fuel payments to all pensioners, or the £5bn Labour wants to rob off sick and disabled people.' Meanwhile, Green candidate Ann McGuinness held a rally in Stonehouse and community meetings in Larkhall 'without the pomp of Nigel Farage's private jet trip', and said: 'We said we would fight a grassroots campaign with our local branch as the driving force – making the Scottish Greens a visible force in an area we have not stood in before has been the most important aspect of this campaign.' The full list of 10 candidates in the Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse by-election is: Collette Bradley (Scottish Socialist Party); Andy Brady (Scottish Family Party); Ross Lambie (Reform); Katy Loudon (SNP); Janice MacKay (UKIP); Ann McGuinness (Green); Aisha Mir (Liberal Democrats); Richard Nelson (Conservative); Davy Russell (Labour); and Marc Wilkinson (independent).
The Independent
a day ago
- General
- The Independent
Nigel Farage dodges media event in Hamilton
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has dodged a planned media event in Hamilton ahead of a by-election this week. The party leader was due to visit the town as part of campaigning in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse vote, with the party telling journalists a 'walkabout' would take place in Hamilton. While the exact location was not immediately made available to journalists, the party said it would inform those who were planning on attending. As rumours swirled the event would begin in the car park of a Premier Inn in the town, reporters, photographers and broadcasters congregated there, waiting for around two hours for the Reform UK leader. However, he did not appear at the event, which was scheduled to begin at 2.15pm. Mr Farage later posted pictures of a similar walkabout with candidate Ross Lambie as the one planned for Hamilton – but in neighbouring Larkhall – as well as another which appeared to have been taken in the back court of the party's offices in the town. No official reason has been given by the party for Mr Farage not attending the event, but he had earlier accused the Herald of leaking the location of a press conference he was holding in Aberdeen, something which the paper has strenuously denied. Later in the day, protesters clashed with Reform supporters outside the party's offices in Hamilton. Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie MSP said: 'Nigel Farage has bottled it, proving what we have known for years – he is a coward. 'Farage's day saw him admit he can't win the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, announce that he would slash funding for Scotland's NHS and public services, and then do a runner.' SNP depute leader Keith Brown, meanwhile, hit out at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who was in Scotland on Monday, but did not campaign in the by-election. Mr Brown said: 'Starmer running scared is proof that Labour has given up on this campaign and it is only the SNP who are facing down Farage and taking our positive message to the doorsteps.'
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The SNP stronghold that could fall to Reform – and help Farage win over Scotland
Nigel Farage jetted back to Britain from Las Vegas on Friday ready to roll the dice on what could be his party's biggest electoral breakthrough in Scotland. The Reform UK leader is expected to hit the campaign trail on Monday for a Scottish Parliament by-election on Thursday. Once upon a time it would have been inconceivable for Scottish voters to back him. Less than a decade ago, he was forced to seek refuge in a pub and required a police escort after he was chased out of Edinburgh by angry locals. But now support for Reform is surging north of the border, as locals become increasingly disillusioned with the SNP and Labour alike. At stake, the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse seat and an opportunity for the party to secure its first MSP in a contest seen as a bellwether for next May's Holyrood elections. Quite what that victory might look like remains to be seen, but Ross Lambie, Reform's candidate, has the air of a confident man. 'We are loving this campaign,' says the 41-year-old architect. 'Because we have nothing to lose. The SNP and Labour have lots to lose, they have got everything to lose, they're fighting for their careers; we feel like we're fighting for the country.' By his own admission, the Reform party in Scotland is more of a movement than an established political force. But the married father-of-one says that momentum is building. He said hundreds of volunteers from across the country have travelled to Hamilton in recent weeks to assist his campaign. 'People feel badly let down by the SNP and Labour and they feel like this is the last chance. There is frustration with the current political parties. What little public money we have is being spent on things like net zero while there are two-year NHS waiting lists. We're calling these decisions out,' he says. Reform winning or even finishing a close second to the SNP would give credence to polls showing it is on course to overtake the Tories and Labour to become the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament. The by-election was supposed to be a straight fight between the SNP and Labour when it was called in mid-April, following the death of Scottish Government minister Christina McKelvie. However, both parties' activists have been surprised by the strength of support for Reform on the doorsteps and are worried that it could pull off an unlikely win. Brenda Maclean has lived in Hamilton for about 50 years. She has always voted Labour but the town's steady decline has left her disillusioned and angry. 'This used to be a bustling town,' she says. 'Hamilton's half-empty now, it's like a ghost town. Look at it. Charity shops. Nail bars. Turkish barbers. It's disgraceful and they want you to vote?' The 70-year-old pensioner said she intends to vote in the by-election but her message to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is not to bank on her support. 'We were brought up with Labour as the working party but they're not interested in working people. Starmer's more interested in [what's happening] abroad than his own country. I think I'll vote for Reform, I'm in two minds. People want something different because they are fed up.' Ewan Spence is also undecided, but the 59-year-old accountant and Tory supporter said he might vote tactically for Labour. He described Reform as 'divisive' on issues such as immigration. 'I don't want that in my country,' he said. 'It should have been a two-horse race between Labour and SNP, but it's not going to be. Reform are pushing hard in the area, they are building votes and I think they could push Labour into second place, which would be seismic.' On Hamilton's high street, many locals are only vaguely aware of the looming election battle. Lucas Land, 34, a self-employed window cleaner, said: 'I'm not interested, look at the state of this place. Every second shop is a charity shop. It's a mess.' Kellyanne Macdonald, 40, said she had no plans to vote despite being canvassed by Reform and the SNP in recent weeks. 'Nothing changes,' she said. 'I remember when Hamilton was bustling.' For the SNP, defeat in a seat where it is defending a 4,582 majority would be nothing short of humiliating for First Minister John Swinney, who recently convened a summit to 'lock out' Reform from Scotland. He has already warned that the by-election is a 'straight contest' between the SNP and Reform UK as he urged voters to back his party last week. He said Labour support had collapsed and urged voters to act and 'unite behind our shared principles' to defeat Nigel Farage's party. Mr Swinney described Mr Farage as a 'clear and present danger to our country' and said he must be stopped. However, for Labour, the political consequences are far more devastating, especially if predictions of a distant third-place finish behind the SNP and Reform are realised. Labour's Imogen Walker – the wife of the Prime Minister's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – won the equivalent Westminster seat in last July's general election with a majority of nearly 10,000 following a huge swing from the SNP. She gained 49.9 per cent of the popular vote compared to 7.8 per cent for the Reform candidate but the decline in Labour's popularity has been precipitous during the troubled early months of Sir Keir's government. With the Tories also in the doldrums, Mr Farage sees an opportunity to supplant both parties in Scotland. Before visiting the by-election, the Reform leader is expected to travel to Aberdeen, where he plans to highlight his party's fierce opposition to net zero. This is expected to play well with thousands of oil and gas workers in the North East of Scotland, many of whom are deeply unhappy at Sir Keir's ban on further exploration in the North Sea. Back in Hamilton, Katy Loudon, the SNP's candidate, admits that many voters feel 'politically homeless'. She blames decades of Tory austerity and a sense of betrayal over Labour's changes to winter fuel payments and the decision not to grant compensation to WASPI women hit by pension reforms. She is also candid about the choice facing voters. 'This is not a testing ground for Reform, it's a by-election for electing someone to champion this community, as Christina did. With Labour being out of the race, it's really only the SNP who can stand up to Reform.'
Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Times
Out with Reform as it dares to dream of Scottish by-election shock
'When the campaign started, we thought we'd beat the Tories into third and put a bit of pressure on them,' says Ross Lambie, the architect who now dares imagine he might become Reform UK's first member of the Scottish parliament when voters in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse constituency cast their ballots in the most keenly watched Holyrood by-election in years. 'But after we started canvassing, we realised how super-angry the Labour voters were. They feel betrayed. The depth of anger took us by surprise, and they were also really open to Reform. Particularly now we're putting flesh on the bones of our policies, like scrapping the two-child cap and on the winter fuel allowance.' On the streets of Larkhall, a staunchly Unionist working-class town where Glasgow Rangers FC is the established church, former Labour voters are easily found. Sir Keir Starmer is 'sending the country down the Swanee', says one man who claims to have already voted by post for Reform. 'I don't think any of them are fit to run the country,' says another woman, citing — like many voters here — Labour's benefit cuts and the abolition of winter fuel payments as evidence of the party's willingness to betray those it ostensibly exists to support. The by-election, necessitated by the death of the popular sitting MSP Christina McKelvie, should notionally have been a straightforward contest between Labour and the SNP. McKelvie won the seat with 46 per cent of the vote and a majority of 4,582 in 2021. This is the kind of constituency upon which Labour's hopes of wresting power back from the SNP for the first time since 2007 depend. If Labour cannot win Hamilton, it cannot win Scotland. As such, the by-election is a vital test for the party's Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar. The campaign's 'air war' has been dominated by Reform, most notably via the attention and controversy generated by an advertisement placed on Facebook and Instagram in which the party claimed that while it would always 'stand up' for the people of Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse, Sarwar would 'prioritise' Scotland's small Scots-Pakistani community. This was, at best, a misrepresentation of remarks Sarwar made at a dinner celebrating the greater presence of south Asian and ethnic minority politicians in Scottish public life. The rumpus generated by what Labour and the SNP agree was an 'openly racist' pitch for nativist votes in a constituency that is almost entirely populated by white people has continued. When Farage declined to apologise for, let alone disavow, the ad, Sarwar labelled him a 'pathetic little man'. Rather than pull the video, as opponents demanded, Farage played it at a press conference being broadcast live on TV. He went on to claim Sarwar had 'introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics' — a suggestion that suggested Reform's leader is not intimately acquainted with the history of Lanarkshire politics — and then released another attack ad, with implied questioning of whether the Scottish Labour leader, born in Glasgow to immigrants from Pakistan, shared British 'values'. Following the Scottish cabinet meeting on Tuesday, senior ministers and special advisers held a special session to discuss how the SNP should approach the final ten days of campaigning. A source close to John Swinney, the first minister, acknowledged the 'risk' in 'talking up' the threat posed by Reform. Some ministers believe focusing on Reform lends Farage's party an unearned legitimacy. SNP insiders believe three outcomes remain possible: a tolerably comfortable SNP victory, an uncomfortably close SNP win, and, less likely but still plausible, a stunning Reform victory. 'Three-way fights in a by-election with a new kid on the block have never been a thing in Scotland so it is difficult to call,' said one veteran SNP campaigner, 'especially when the electorate has deserted its old allegiances.' Even SNP sources allow, however, that voters unhappy with Labour's performance at a UK level are not necessarily enthused by the SNP's record in government in Scotland either. However improbable, a Reform victory would arguably be the biggest shock in a Scottish by-election since Winnie Ewing won Hamilton for the SNP in 1967. That result marked the birth of the modern SNP and is the moment from which its long rise to prominence and power may be dated. Coincidentally, this week's Holyrood by-election covers some of the same territory as Ewing's Westminster triumph. Reform's rise is remarkable. In 2021 the party's candidate won only 58 votes in the constituency; next week everyone agrees the party will win thousands. Opinion polls, meanwhile, suggest that on current trends the party could win about 18 seats in next year's Holyrood election. Any outcome on anything remotely like that scale would be understood as a thundering rebuke to a Scottish political consensus that has hitherto seen Reform as a party of cranks and losers and, still more significantly, as a purely English political phenomenon. Wider — and perhaps grubbier — political considerations are also at play in Hamilton this week. Just as Morgan McSweeney, Starmer's closest aide, sees the upside in framing the next general election as a battle between Labour and Reform as a means by which Labour can destroy the Conservative party, so the SNP appreciates how useful Reform's rise is to their own ambitions. Reform, which has pledged to bring fiscal restraint to local government, has now unveiled plans to reduce the generosity of council staff pension schemes south of the border. Richard Tice, the party's deputy leader, told The Telegraph that councils controlled by Reform would axe final salary schemes and stop offering the perks to new recruits. Staff on existing contracts would also be awarded lower annual pay rises to offset the costs of pension schemes. A new poll for The Sunday Times reveals that support for Scottish independence has risen to 54 per cent, largely as a result of voters' disillusionment with Labour in government and the rise of Reform who, for all their current and recent success in Scotland, are still seen as unwelcome interlopers by many Scottish voters. Independence may be a largely hypothetical issue at present but SNP strategists believe the threat of 'prime minister Farage' can be used to concentrate Scottish minds. Even so, the same poll finds that voters are unenthused by the SNP as it seeks a third decade in power in Edinburgh. Only 33 per cent of Scots are inclined to support the Nationalists, a far cry from the 48 per cent who backed the party at the Holyrood election in 2021. Moreover, today's poll reveals that although Farage, who is due in the country on Monday, has an approval rating in Scotland of -25 he is significantly less unpopular than the prime minister whose rating is -39. • Hamilton by-election result will set the mood for Holyrood 2026 Charlie the labrador joins the Hamilton campaign JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse is precisely the kind of seat Labour would need to win if the party is to have any chance of repeating its stunning successes at last year's general election. Coincidentally, much of the Holyrood constituency is represented at Westminster by McSweeney's wife, Imogen Walker. Conversely, if Reform takes more votes from Unionist parties than from the SNP — and polling strongly suggests this will be the case — then the further fragmentation of the anti-SNP vote can only benefit the nationalists. Senior Labour sources outwardly at least insist they are still 'neck and neck' with the SNP and 'there is not a chance we will finish third'. Some even see some advantage in the race-based controversies that have come to dominate the campaign. 'The absence of this sort of explicit racism in mainstream Scottish politics was, obviously, previously a good thing,' a senior Labour strategist claims. 'But if Reform are going to do it, it means Anas gets to respond to it strongly and to take Farage on. 'A lot of people who were maybe tempted by Reform as a protest vote are now thinking, 'That's racist and I don't want to have anything to do with that'.'
