NIGEL Farage has “spent years peddling Russian propaganda”, First Minister John Swinney has said.
The SNP leader hit out at the Reform UK MP in an open letter published by the Daily Record on Thursday.
In it, Swinney said that the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Holyrood by-election, set to take place on June 5, had become a “straight contest” between his SNP and Farage’s Reform.
The First Minister urged Labour voters who aimed to keep out Reform to support his party – just as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on Wednesday urged people who oppose the SNP to unite around his party’s candidate.
Swinney wrote: “At the start of this election most people saw this as a two-horse race between the SNP and Labour. But that’s not how things have played out. Labour have collapsed.
“Their candidate is in hiding, refusing to be interviewed on the radio, and or take part in the planned TV debate.
“It’s clear to me from being out and about that Labour can’t win and are struggling to even come second. In their place, the challenge is coming from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
“I’ve been warning for months about the danger that Farage poses to Scotland. He was the driving force behind Brexit, which has made us all poorer and is responsible for your food prices going up.
“Because of him and his Brexit campaign, the economy is weaker and the NHS has less funding. And, if he had his way, he would go further.
“He spent years peddling Russian propaganda on Ukraine, and in this by-election he is now promoting racist disinformation about my political rival, Labour’s Anas Sarwar.”
Reform UK have spent more than £10,000 promoting a “racist” advert which falsely claims that Sarwar has “said he will prioritise the Pakistani community”, continuing to pour money into it despite accusations of “race-baiting”.
Farage has faced intense criticism for his position on Russia, including when in 2024 he said that the country’s invasion of Ukraine had been “provoked” by the West.
In 2014, Farage named despot Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admired.
There were also questions about ties between Arron Banks, the millionaire political donor who bankrolled Farage’s Brexit campaign, and Russia.
The Guardian reported in 2018 that Banks had overseen meetings between Leave.EU and Russian officials between 2015 and 2017, including two in the week of Leave.EU’s official campaign launch and a meeting between Banks and the Russian ambassador the day after the launch.
In 2019, MEPs in Farage’s Brexit Party voted against a motion expressing “deep concern over the highly dangerous nature of Russian propaganda” and calling for the EU to better tackle it.
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “In the last 24 hours Nigel Farage has been subjected to panicked political attacks by everybody from Keir Starmer to John Swinney because Reform UK is winning. Long may it continue.”
Responding to Swinney’s assertion that the Hamilton by-election is a two-horse race between the SNP and Reform UK, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “This by-election is a direct fight between Scottish Labour and the SNP, and it is desperate and dishonest spin for John Swinney to pretend otherwise.
“John Swinney wants to make this by-election about Reform because he has no ideas for the future and cannot defend his government’s record.”
