24-05-2025
Moment John Swinney heckled by Reform UK campaigner as FM dodges warring activists ahead of Hamilton by-election
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JOHN Swinney today breezed past two sets of warring activists hurling abuse at each other ahead of a hotly contested by-election.
The First Minister was met with heckles of 'Swinney the swine' by Reform UK campaigners who were locked in a bitter stand-off, on Hamilton's Quarry Street, with rivals from the Scottish Socialist Party.
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John Swinney was campaigning in Hamilton with SNP candidate Katy Loudon
Credit: Wattie Cheung
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Reform UK activists shouted abuse at the First Minister in Hamilton, Lanarkshire
Credit: Staff
An anti-immigration canvasser, puffing on a cigarette, was heard telling voters: 'Take a leaflet and put it in your sky rocket.'
He displayed homemade signs reading 'Just stop immigration' and 'Stop the boats'.
Across the street, three left-wingers set up shop with posters urging for a workers' wage and 'reject corruption'.
However, Mr Swinney - accompanied by two protection officers - ignored the screaming match and stopped outside a nearby Greggs.
He quizzed SNP candidate Katy Loudon on her least favourite pastry from the high street bakery to which she replied: 'The Festive Bake.'
It comes ahead of a by-election on Thursday 5 June, following the sad death, aged 57, of former Nats MP Christina McKelvie.
Meanwhile Labour chiefs fear Reform's surge will hand the SNP victory in the Hamilton by-election.
Insiders in Anas Sarwar's camp admitted they now face a struggle in what looked an easily winnable seat.
The mood has shifted as angry voters ditch Labour after last July's landslide Westminster victory over Sir Keir Starmer's policies like slashing winter fuel payments.
Sources now worry Nigel Farage's Reform are set to split the anti-SNP vote in the June 5 contest and next year's Holyrood election.
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One Labour insider said: 'To win we'll need to convince every single anti-Nat voter to back us, and for them all to turn out. I just don't think that is going to happen.'
Polls show Reform on course to become Holyrood's second party after big gains in council elections down south.
It has scuppered Scottish Labour chiefs' bid to bill themselves as 'the best way to stop the SNP' — as Reform also eat into the Tory base.
Another Labour source said: 'If we can't win Hamilton, the writing is on the wall for 2026. There is a lot of pessimism at the top of Scottish Labour.'
