THE rise of Reform has seen Unionist parties move further to the right, giving Yes parties an opportunity to put forward a different vision for Scotland.
Nigel Farage’s party won a sweeping victory during the latest English local elections, beating the Conservatives, Labour and the LibDems after all the votes were finally tallied up. They managed to win over voters in both Labour and Tory areas.
On Sunday’s broadcast round, the party’s chairman Zia Yusuf doubled down on anti-immigrant rhetoric, promising a report that will set out how they plan to “deport everybody who is currently in this country illegally in our first term of government”.
Labour ministers are now reportedly planning on cracking down on international students applying for asylum in the UK, according to the Guardian, but claimed these had been in the works for months and were not a knee-jerk reaction to Reform’s win.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Sky News that Labour now sees Reform as a “real threat” and as a “serious opposition force”.
“It’s not yet clear whether at the next general election it will be Reform or the Conservatives that are Labour’s main challenges, but we’ve got to take that threat seriously,” he said.
In the days following the results, reports suggested Labour would continue its shift to the right.
The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch (below) put down Reform’s success to there being “protest is in the air”.
“We live in politically volatile times and what I have been saying is that we are going to take a slow and steady way,” she told the BBC.
“There will be bumps along (the way) but we can do this, and we will do it in four years, not 18 years, 14 years, 13 years like the previous oppositions.”
In Scotland, Scottish branch office leaders Russell Findlay, for the Tories, and Anas Sarwar, for Labour, were both pressed on Reform on the BBC’s Sunday Show.
Findlay claimed he didn’t see Farage’s appeal to voters, and suggested some Reform candidates north of the border were Scottish Nationalists.
He continued to attack the SNP and said his party were the only ones to stand up against the “left-wing Holyrood consensus”.
With pollster Mark Diffley suggesting Reform could win between 10 and 15 MSPs at the Holyrood election in 2026, the Tories could see their own cohort reduced significantly.
Sarwar also tried to pivot Reform’s win as an attack on the SNP, claiming First Minister John Swinney wants to make the election “about Nigel Farage”.
Pointing to the NHS, education and other public spending, he said: “Nigel Farage can't fix those issues. He can act as a spoiler and a cover for John Swinney. I can get rid of John Swinney and change the direction for Scotland.”
In the same interview, Sarwar (below) blamed both the SNP and Tories for job losses at Grangemouth, when asked about his previous promises to save jobs at the site.
Thomas Kerr, a former Tory councillor who defected to Reform, came out swinging at Findlay’s comments, continuing to present Farage the millionaire’s party as anti-establishment.
“What terrifies the Tories is that we might actually replace them,” he said.
“Political loyalty isn’t a football strip, you’re allowed to change your mind.
“Russell Findlay says Reform are nationalists. The SNP say we’re unionists. They both cling to this tired binary because it protects the status quo, where they take turns failing everyone in Scotland.”
The Holyrood 2026 election campaign is certainly going to be interesting. There is a clear opportunity for pro-independence parties espousing progressive values to speak to voters who are not quite convinced by this fast-moving shift towards far-right populism.
