REFORM UK condemned the recent rise in reported hate crimes in Scotland today – without offering any self-reflection on their own rhetoric.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal (COPFS) figures issued on Tuesday showed that the most commonly reported form of hate crime in 2025-26 – 3390 – were racially motivated, a rise of 17% on the previous year.
But what did Reform say in their press release on the issue on Tuesday afternoon?
That the SNP have had 20 years to “build safer communities, restore confidence in policing and deliver a justice system that deters offending,” according to MSP Amanda Bland.
"Scotland deserves a government that is relentlessly focused on preventing crime, backing our police officers, protecting victims and ensuring criminals face swift and meaningful consequences,” she added. “That has not happened under the SNP."
"Reform UK Scotland will always stand for law and order. We will back the police, prioritise victims over offenders, deliver tougher sentencing for serious and repeat criminals and restore confidence that the justice system exists to protect decent, law-abiding Scots."
In their paper-thin Holyrood manifesto, the party said it would abolish the “intrusive, ideologically motivated Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, restoring freedom of speech and allowing police to focus on real crime”.
It should also be noted that they claimed police should not deal with mental health incidents to free up their workload. How that would be determined by call handlers was never truly fleshed out.
Reform are quite happy to use parliamentary debates to call immigrants “strangers”, to target migrants over Glasgow’s housing crisis , and call for further protests after violent racist disorder broke out in the city after a stabbing in Belfast – but without the violence, of course.
During that horrific incident, three people in Glasgow were attacked based on the colour of their skin.
Take Thomas Kerr, for example, who was the MSP who called for more protests in Glasgow but warned anyone taking part not to engage in violence or it would play into the hands of Keir Starmer and John Swinney.
On Monday, he posted a video on social media claiming that Glasgow is “lawless” and that “anarchy is now running rampant on our streets”.
He alleged that since the Holyrood election just under a few months ago the city is “indeed lawless under the SNP”.
Despite Kerr’s claims, the public passing by him outside of St Enoch centre seemed calm and relaxed, with one man sitting idly on a bin.
But of course Kerr eventually moved on to the real point behind his video, which at the time of writing has more than 34,000 views on X/Twitter.
“Mass illegal migration is pushing our city to breaking point, enough is enough,” he opined.
“Only Reform UK will restore justice back to our streets, make sure that crime pays and will detain and deport those who have came here illegally. It’s time to put the people of Glasgow first, and only Reform UK will do that.”
If Reform really wants safer streets, they could start by looking at the consequences of their own words or of the part it plays in fuelling hate against communities of colour.
Reform are right that Scotland has a hate crime problem. What they aren't doing is admitting that stoking division and creating the kind of atmosphere that allows this type of crime to thrive benefits them.
Instead, they’ll just half-heartedly attack the SNP, morals be damned.
