Former Scottish Labour Fife councillor joins Reform where her values ‘are most aligned’

Julie MacDougall made the announcement in a video message posted to her Facebook page on Wednesday morning, saying her values “are truly most aligned to this party than any other”.

The Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy councillor is the second elected member in the region to join Nigel Farage’s party, following in the footsteps of Robin Lawson from St Andrews, who defected from the Tories.

Ms MacDougall is the daughter of the late John MacDougall, who was the Labour leader of Fife Council and also MP for Glenrothes. Rumours of her switch to Reform have circulated for several months, which she dismissed until her official announcement.

The move comes after Ms MacDougall quit Labour after failing to become the party’s general election candidate in Kirkcaldy after Wilma Brown withdrew. She branded the decision to go for Melanie Ward rather than a local candidate as “disrespectful and insulting” and also “non democratic”.

Ms Ward comfortably won the seat and has gone on to secure multi-million pound funding for the Lang Toun and priority status to the UK’s Growth Fund Commission.

Ms MacDougall, who also stood for Labour in Dunfermline at the 2021 Scottish election, said the switch to Reform came because she “wants to be part of more authentic, grown-up, honest politics with a common-sense approach and without all the rhetoric nonsense”.

She said: “Over a year ago I resigned from Labour as I was disillusioned and disappointed. I must say it was the right move as things have got worse. Our country is broken and real change is needed moving away from parties who have had the opportunity to fix things.

“We need to tackle mismanaged, illegal migration, reform our overstretched NHS, take a more pragmatic approach managing resources at national and local levels, provide better services in communities for the disabled, elderly, veterans, young people and families.”

She said she had spoken to people in her council ward who “are so fed up they might not bother to vote – they don’t know where to go”.

“After lot of meetings, discussions and soul searching, I am ready to put my energies into another party by utilising my full potential to serve the people of Fife, and make even more of a difference,” she said.