'Reform and the SNP are the same type of party'

THE leader of the Scottish Tories has branded his two main political opponents “ridiculous” and “populist” in a blistering attack on how they treat the country.

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Russell Findlay made the withering comments in a wide-ranging, hard-hitting interview with the Scottish Daily Express yesterday.

He attacked both First Minister John Swinney and the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, claiming neither had the interests of Scotland at heart.

Mr Findlay was speaking ahead of his first Scottish Conservative conference as leader in Edinburgh this weekend.

He has also urged the electorate to “teach these arrogant and complacent SNP politicians, a damn good lesson” at next year’s Holyrood elections.

The conference comes at a challenging time for the Scottish Tories as they are languishing in fourth in the polls and headline

suffered a thrashing at the recent Hamilton, Lanark and Stonehouse by-election.

A surging Reform UK has been eating into Tory votes and support across the country.

However, Mr Findlay is refusing to shy away from the battle while admitting he has a lot to do to turn his party around and make them credible challengers again.

There is less than a year to the Holyrood election where the Conservatives are hoping to keep up their good record of being the main opposition to the SNP.

Mr Findlay has spoken before about how he would be willing to support a Unionist majority at Holyrood if it means locking the Nats out.

It is this drive to rid Scotland of the “incompetent” SNP which softened the blow of the defeat in the by-election last week.

The fact that the SNP failed to keep hold of the seat has given some comfort to Mr Findlay.

This is especially true as the First Minister had claimed in the run-up to the election that it was a two-horse race between the Nats and Reform.

Reflecting on this, Mr Findlay said: “I found John Swinney’s tactics’ were not just ridiculous but cheap.