Politicians must take on Reform in battle of ideas

SNP leader John Swinney is right to warn of the threat posed to his party and others by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Reform won just five seats in July’s General Election but it was the third most popular party, with 14.3 per cent of the vote.

Recent polling suggests that there would be little to separate Reform, the Conservatives and Labour if an election were to take place tomorrow, in terms of votes cast.

In Scotland, it seems there is a tendency to think of Mr Farage and his supporters as an English phenomenon with little bearing on politics north of the Border.

First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage | PA

But in July, Reform won 7 per cent of the vote in Scotland, compared with 3.8 per cent for the Scottish Greens and 12.7 per cent for the Tories. This was despite very little campaigning or party infrastructure.

Reform has won between 12 and 25 per cent of first preferences in council by-elections in Aberdeenshire and Glasgow and has claimed four councillors from defections.

Polls currently predict the party will win up to 12 MSPs at the next Holyrood election.

Politicians such as Mr Swinney are correct when they state that there was a clear majority in Scotland for remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum.

In doing so, however, it is perhaps often forgotten that more than a million Scots voted to leave.

Until shortly before the UK left the EU, one of Scotland’s MEPs was a member of UKIP, a precursor of Reform.

For too long, leaders from across the political spectrum appear to have been in denial about the level of support enjoyed by Reform.

Belatedly perhaps, the penny now seems to have dropped.

Mr Farage’s political opponents cannot simply ignore him and hope he and his party go away.

They must take him on and win over voters’ hearts and minds in the battle of ideas, rather than back away.

They must, as Mr Swinney says, “engage on the issues that might attract voters to Reform and provide solutions”.