RUSSELL Findlay’s attempt to emulate Reform UK has seen the Scottish Tory leader lose two MSPs in less than a year.
Findlay took over the top job for the Holyrood party in September 2024. In April, West of Scotland MSP Jamie Greene defected to the Scottish LibDems. On Friday, Lothians MSP and the party’s spokesperson for social justice, Jeremy Balfour resigned and said he would be standing as an Independent.
In his letter to Findlay, Balfour said the party had "fallen into the trap of reactionary politics”. Greene, in his resignation letter, accused the party of adopting a “Reform-lite agenda”.
Nigel Farage’s party is undoubtedly a threat to the Scottish Tories at the Holyrood 2026 election. Under Ruth Davidson, the Tories jumped from third place to second in 2016, leapfrogging Labour and becoming the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament.
Davidson resigned in 2019 after Boris Johnson took over in Number 10, leading to Douglas Ross taking on the role of antagonist at FMQs.
Even under Ross, who repeatedly had to defend Johnson through partygate and numerous scandals, MSPs were not so swift to abandon a sinking ship.
So why now? And what, if anything, could the Tories do about it?
Farage is clearly a spectre haunting not just the Tories but all of Scotland’s political parties. A Survation poll in May suggested Reform UK could become the second-largest party in Holyrood.
In the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, Reform’s candidate Ross Lambie came third with 7088 votes. The Tories' Richard Nelson came fourth, with 1621 votes. Lambie, a South Lanarkshire councillor, defected from the Tories to Reform in March.
Of the 14 Scottish councillors who defected to Farage’s party, 12 were originally Tories.
This is clearly not being lost on Findlay, who is taking his party further to the right. From his social media page, which on Friday afternoon bore no mention or response to Balfour, Findlay has apparently spent his summer touring agricultural shows and local events, while railing against transgender self-ID, a policy blocked from becoming law by the former Tory Westminster government.
Findlay, a former journalist, has apparently calculated that his best chance at avoiding a complete wipe out of Tory MSPs at the Holyrood election – at best, they are looking at returning representatives in the single figures – is to lean into far-right talking points.
The problem is – this won't work. Emulating Reform UK will not pacify those whom Farage et al appeal to.
The Tories are still, and rightly, being hounded by the 14 years they had in power at Westminster.
A tenure that left Scots poorer, caused a cost of living crisis, saw the UK leave the EU and an endless list of chaotic policy decisions of which we are still feeling the impact.
Findlay may try to point fingers at the SNP and Labour, as he has in his latest social media videos, but without introspection and a shift to the centre ground, the Tories are likely to become irrelevant in Scottish politics, if they aren't already.
