Reform launched their Scottish manifesto yesterday. The party is aiming to position itself as the main beneficiary of a Tory collapse north of the border, which was apparently foreshadowed by last year’s Hamilton by-election, in which Reform came third (and the Conservatives fourth).
Nigel Farage believes Reform can win the second largest number of seats in May’s Scottish parliamentary election thanks to a strong showing in the regional list system.
Yesterday, the main theme of the Reform was the issue of health, which has so far dominated the elections along with the economy. But the party’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, also made a comment about illegal migration. With immigration now rated as the third highest priority for Scottish voters, the party hopes to capitalize on the growing importance of the issue. For example, Glasgow is the local authority area with the highest number of asylum seekers in the UK, and Reform sees this as a way to break the SNP’s dominance (the raw numbers are higher in Greater London, but the area is split into 32 different boroughs).
Change is being made. Reform – along with Farage’s previous political enterprises (namely the Brexit Party and Ukip) – has long been written off as a phenomenon of English nationalism, and Farage is considered politically toxic north of the border. But now polls suggest Farage is no longer the UK’s most disliked political leader in Scotland. That place has been taken by Keir Starmer. Despite Scottish Labor doing well in the summer of 2024 and its leader, Anas Sarwar, repudiating Starmer, the party’s popularity has taken a hit. This gives Farage the opportunity to cause another political earthquake.
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(Further reading: How prepared is Britain for fuel shortages?)
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