How Scottish Tories can see off threat posed by Nigel Farage and Reform UK

At the general election in July, about 7 per cent of voters in Scotland backed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, compared to 12.7 per cent for the Conservatives, whose vote share was virtually cut in half.

This has created an obvious dilemma for Scots Tory leader Russell Findlay: does he try to win back those who have switched to Reform by echoing Farage’s rhetoric or instead stick to his party’s traditional position on the centre-right.

This latter tactic may seem risky. After all, Reform have the political ‘momentum’ and, with Donald Trump in the White House and X/Twitter boss Elon Musk in his government, a couple of very high-profile supporters.

They have also been winning over some Tory councillors, although the latest two are so low profile that Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice couldn’t remember their surnames, calling them only “John and Ross” during a press event in Glasgow.

Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice speaks to the media during a visit to Glasgow (Picture: John Devlin) | National World

Reform’s Trump problem set to grow

Furthermore, UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has been repurposing some attack lines used by Musk in particular against the Labour government. So one could imagine Russell concluding that he should start leaning towards the hard-right. This, however, would be a mistake.

It was, after all, under the leadership of One Nation Conservative Ruth Davidson that the party had its greatest successes in Scotland. Pandering to Reform may put off as many people as it wins back. Also, repeating Farage’s rhetoric may simply persuade voters that he is right.

However, the looming figure of Trump represents a big problem for Reform. Farage was roundly criticised for claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been “rude” and showed “no respect” to Trump during their heated meeting in the White House last week.

Trump may yet try to force Ukraine to sign a ‘peace deal’ that is more like a surrender and has also thrown the US’s commitment to the Nato alliance into doubt. Being linked to Trump for the next four years is likely to become an increasingly bad look.

Findlay and co should take the fight to Reform, pointing out their lack of serious policies and emphasising their closeness to Trump, and have the courage to stay true to their values.