AN SNP councillor has refuted claims he defected to Reform UK after he was listed as a member of the party on Aberdeen City Council’s website.
Alexander McLellan was listed as a member of Nigel Farage’s party on the local authority’s website. It has now been changed back to list the Tillydrone, Seaton and Old Aberdeen representative as a member of the SNP.
The glitch emerged after Luis Cook, a right-wing influencer, posted on Twitter/X that McLellan was the “first (direct) defection from the SNP to Reform”.
Cook’s post has since been deleted.
McLellan was quick to hit back at the claims as a “lie” and told the Herald the issue had been “reported to senior officials and is being investigated”.
On Twitter/X, McLellan wrote: “These people are so desperate for attention that they will fabricate nonsense about whatever, and whomever, they can.
“The problem they have is that defamation laws exist in the UK for a reason, and if this post isn’t taken down then they will likely find that out.”
Reform UK Scotland also responded to the post, writing: “Absolute nonsense. We have never spoken with this councillor and have zero knowledge of his wish to defect.”
So far, 13 councillors in Scotland have defected to Reform – the overwhelming majority from the Scottish Conservatives.
Jamie McGuire became the first councillor to defect from Scottish Labour to Farage’s party in June. He serves the Renfrew North and Braehead ward on Renfrewshire council.
McGuire announced the move during Farage’s visit to Scotland ahead of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, where the Reform UK leader hid from the Scottish press and faced protests outside of the party’s local campaign offices.
In April, Reform claimed that their membership numbers in Scotland had passed 10,000 people, making them the country’s third largest party.
Polling published in May suggested Farage’s party could overtake Scottish Labour at the Holyrood 2026 election, suggesting they could return 19% of the vote on the constituency ballot and 20% on the regional list.
