Scotland will be seeing me, says Farage

The Reform UK leader said he plans to campaign north of the border in the run-up to the 2026 Holyrood election.

Nigel Farage said he would campaign north of the border (Alberto Pezzali/PA) (PA Wire)

Nigel Farage has said he will be campaigning in Scotland ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election.

The Reform UK leader’s comments came as a recent poll put the party on 9% in the constituency vote in less than two years’ time, just two percentage points behind the Scottish Conservatives.

On the regional list vote, the Survation survey for pro-union campaign group Scotland in Union suggested Reform could win 8%, with the Tories sitting on 11%.

I can assure you, Scotland will be seeing me, of that there is no question at all

Nigel Farage

Speaking to STV News, the Reform leader said: “I can assure you, Scotland will be seeing me, of that there is no question at all.

“I think that really, from very little acorns, we’ve made a very good start… I will be in Scotland next year, thinking about planning a year ahead for the Scottish elections.”

Mr Farage also suggested “no-one knows what the Scottish Conservatives are, what they stand for”.

In the wake of the Survation poll, Scottish Tory leadership candidate Murdo Fraser said it must act as a “wake-up call” to the party.

“With no infrastructure or elected representatives in Scotland, Reform is at our heels,” he said.

“We can’t carry on as we are – we need real change, and that is what I will deliver.”

Reform UK won 7% of the vote in Scotland in July’s general election.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: “If Nigel Farage paid the slightest attention to Scottish politics, he would know that the Scottish Conservatives have been the only major party standing up for the tens of thousands of skilled oil and gas workers who have been shamefully abandoned by Labour, the SNP, Greens and Liberal Democrats.

“We warned in the run-up to the general election that a vote for Reform would only help the SNP – and that’s what happened, with the nationalists scraping through the middle in two seats which otherwise would almost certainly have been won by the Scottish Conservatives.

“But we also recognise that the Scottish Conservatives have lessons to learn from a very difficult election in order to win back the trust of former supporters who voted for other parties or stayed at home in July.”