Nigel Farage to announce Reform UK Scottish leader next week

The Reform UK leader said he will make the announcement at a press conference in Edinburgh on Thursday.

He was speaking at a press conference in Central London this morning.

Mr Farage said: “In the one by-election there’s been for the Scottish Parliament, we scored in the high 20 per cents.

“I will be doing a press conference in Edinburgh next Thursday, where I will announce the leader of Reform UK Scotland.

“And we look again, quite possibly, to those elections being a straight two-horse race between us and the SNP.

“Although admittedly, right at the moment, the SNP are quite some way ahead.”

Labour won the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election in June with 31.6 per cent of the vote. The SNP was on 29.4 per cent, with Reform UK in third on 26.1 per cent.

The frontrunners to be Reform UK’s Scottish leader are former Scotland office minister Malcolm Offord and the party’s sole MSP Graeme Simpson.

Mr Offord became Reform UK’s first peer when he defected from the Tories last month.

He said he intends to stand at this year’s Holyrood election and will resign from his seat in the House of Lords to campaign.

Central Scotland MSP Graeme Simpson joined from the Tories in August. He has been an MSP since 2016 and was previously on the Scottish Conservative frontbench as shadow housing secretary and shadow transport secretary.

Recent polls have put Reform UK in second place for May’s Holyrood election.

Last month an Ipsos survey had the SNP on 35 per cent for the constituency vote, with Reform UK on 18 per cent and Labour on 16 per cent.

A Survation poll from October had the SNP on 34 per cent, with Reform on 22 per cent and Labour on 18 per cent.