Nigel Farage speaks at the Reform UK Scotland conference in Bishopton
by Bill Heaney
Nigel Farage was branded a threat to the Union after he said people who supported independence are ‘welcome’ in his party and refused to rule out supporting another referendum in the future.
The Reform UK leader was accused of being ‘the gift that keeps on giving’ to John Swinney by only ruling out another referendum until 25 years have passed from the 2014 vote.
He also unveiled the candidates selected for all the Holyrood constituencies. Among them are former SNP members including David Kirkwood, a familiar political name in Dunbartonshire where the late eponymous David Kirkwood was once a famous MP, who spoke about support for separation as recently as 2024.
The media release issued yesterday naming the Reform candidates included the name of Andy White as the Reform candidate for Clydebank, but the controversial former one-time Labour leader of West Dunbartonshire Council contacted The Dumbarton Democrat earlier today to complain that whoever it was, it definitely wasn’t him.
■ Attempted to put immigration at the heart of the Holyrood election campaign, claiming mass Muslim prayer events such as the one seen in Trafalgar Square will be coming to Scotland;
■ Vowed to stand up for ‘alarm clock Britain’ and ensure work pays more than benefits;
■ Claimed Reform will become the biggest opposition party at Holyrood.
Asked about former SNP supporters standing for his party, Mr Farage said: ‘People can be something and change their minds, and we at Reform welcome sinners that repenteth.’
The Reform manifesto says ‘rational Unionists and realistic Nationalists can find common ground and unite’ and rules out another referendum in the next two Holyrood terms.
Asked whether he might support a referendum after that point, Mr Farage said: ‘People were promised here in 2014 that the referendum … was a once in a generation thing, which would mean about 25 years.’
He added: ‘I very much doubt there will ever be a popular will or vote to break up the UK.’ Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said: ‘Reform is the gift that keeps on giving – to John Swinney … a vote for Reform only increases the chances of Swinney winning and unleashing his “secret plan” for independence.’
Mr Farage yesterday mocked a protester who was removed from the venue by telling him: ‘Go back to work, oh I’m sorry, you haven’t got a job have you?’
He said: ‘We are the party of alarm clock Britain, we are the party of people who get up in the morning, go to work, do their bit, pay their taxes, believe in our nation, defend its culture, and frankly we are all they’ve got left.’
The Reform UK Scottish manifesto pledged to ‘overhaul the SNP’s new social security to ensure that work always pays more than welfare’ but contained no detail of how that would be done.
Mr Farage vowed to campaign for control of immigration in Scotland, saying Glasgow was the ‘asylum capital’ of the UK.
He said this week’s Trafalgar Square Muslim praying event should be a ‘wake-up call’, warning: ‘Folks, if it hasn’t come to Scotland yet, it will come soon.’
On his party’s prospects in May’s election, he said ‘we will become the official opposition’.
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown said: “Nigel Farage and his band of mercenaries couldn’t care less about Scotland.”
Farage’s biggest desire is to see the NHS privatised with an American insurance based scheme in place to fund it it.
Its a great idea. People will be free to buy as much health care as the want. I mean what could be better than that. And if you don’t have the wherewithal to pay for healthcare then you either didn’t work hard enough or save your money.
Simples really. And of course, there’s the big yellow Brexit Bus too that Farage talked about during the campaign to leave Europe. It was supposed to arrive every weeks with hundreds of millions of pounds in what was now to be our Golden Era.
Ah well, we all know who to vote for now don’t we.