John Swinney accuses Nigel Farage of 'racism' as by-election blows reign down on Hamilton

As activists gathered in Hamilton on Saturday, Mr Swinney hit out at the Reform UK leader, claiming he was a “real threat” while adding Labour was now “out of the contest”.

His remarks come as a respected pollster comfortably put the SNP on track for a win in Thursday’s vote in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse and warned that Reform UK taking second place would reflect the “level and the depth of the disillusion” amongst the electorate. Meanwhile, Labour support has fallen back to 2021 levels, polling expert Mark Diffley, founder of the Diffley Partnership, said.

Earlier in the campaign, Mr Farage’s party was roundly criticised after an ad claimed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was prioritising Pakistani people over Scots and included a section of a speech in which he encouraged more people from south Asian backgrounds to enter politics.

In response, Mr Sarwar described Mr Farage as “a poisonous, pathetic and toxic little man” over the weekend.

READ MORE: John Swinney claims Labour has ‘given up’ on Hamilton by-election

In Hamilton, Mr Swinney addressed supporters - including a number of MSPs, former MPs and candidates for the 2026 Holyrood election. He contrasted Reform UK with former minister Christina McKelvie, whose death prompted the by-election.

He said: “This is a by-election that none of us wanted to be fighting, because it meant that we’d lost somebody we loved, Christina McKelvie, who was an individual that represented generosity, tolerance and inclusion.

“That was how she went about her work in this constituency and in Parliament, and that’s the antithesis of what’s been brought into this by-election campaign by the politics of Nigel Farage, who’s brought racism and hatred right into the heart of this community, and it is repugnant.

“We are going to stand up to it in every way we can.”

In response to journalists, the First Minister said he was not concerned about defamation claims stemming from his allegations of racism against Mr Farage.

When the by-election was called, it was widely seen as a two-horse race between the SNP’s Katy Loudon and Labour’s Davy Russell, but recent weeks have seen a surge in fortune for Mr Farage’s party and claims that Mr Russell has swerved key tests of his candidacy after he apparently turned down the chance to take part in a live STV debate.

After addressing activists, Mr Swinney told reporters it was “very clear” that Labour is “out of this contest” and it is now “between the SNP and Farage”.

He added: “I want to make sure that Farage’s politics don’t get any hold in Scotland, they are damaging.

“If Farage gets in here, then you know the agenda of NHS privatisation is what will follow, the agenda of undermining the Scottish Parliament will follow, because that’s what he believes in.”

READ MORE: Anas Sarwar: Reform ‘can’t win’ Hamilton and SNP ‘don’t deserve to’

Elsewhere in Hamilton on Saturday, Reform UK’s candidate, architect Ross Lambie, gathered activists ahead of a canvassing session, including some bussed into the constituency from the north of England.

Mr Lambie was asked why the parties believed to be the frontrunners at the beginning of the campaign were spending so much time on Reform.

“They’re doing their canvassing and they’re getting the same results as we are, that’s why,” he said.

He added: “We’re getting votes from across the area. If you were to chat to these volunteers, you’ll find some of them were SNP voters in the past, many of them were Labour voters, Conservative voters.”

On Saturday, Mr Sarwar said Labour was still in the race for the sea.

He added: “It’s between ourselves and the SNP, every single vote is going to count.

“That’s why, if you want to beat the SNP, if you want a local champion, if you want to start that pathway to a new direction, the best way of doing that is to vote for one of your own – vote for Davy Russell.”

Despite Mr Swinney’s claim it was a two-horse race between SNP and Reform UK, Mr Diffley stressed the SNP head to Thursday’s poll as clear favourites.

Speaking to Scotland on Sunday, he said: “What the national polling is telling us is that Reform won’t win - it’s telling us that the SNP will win or at least start as favourites to win.

“They are now significantly ahead in the national polling - at around 35 or 36 per cent, on average. Labour are polling at about 20 per cent on average, Reform at 15 per cent.”

Mr Diffley said that there was “enough evidence to be quite confident that the SNP will win”, but who finishes second is less certain.

He said: “The whole position of the parties in the last nine months has shifted in an incredibly fluid and quite dramatic way. If this by-election was this time last year, then Labour would have been odds on to win it. But a year on, they are odds on to lose it.”

If Reform do manage to tip Labour and take second place, Mr Diffley starkly cautioned it would send a warning shot to Scottish politics about how out of love voters are with the mainstream parties.

He said: “It would send a message that the level and the depth of the disillusion at the moment amongst the electorate is such that a party that is new on the scene, has no particular heritage or history in Scotland, is openly saying we’ve got no policies at the moment, has no leader in Scotland, has no ground gain as far as I can tell, is still able to do well in a by-election.”