REFORM SURGE PUSHES PARTY UP IN THE POLLS

Scots voters turning to Team Farage in run-up to Holyrood election

- By David Walker

SCOTLAND'S political parties will be "petrified" after a poll declared Reform UK the second most-popular in the country.

Support for Nigel Farage's outfit continues to soar amid growing resentment with various issues including immigration and the faltering economy. Reform’s leading figures in Scotland understandably welcomed the results.

Ross Lambie, the party’s candidate in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse said: “Support for Reform UK bubbles up in different parts of Scotland with each poll.

“A seismic shift is happening out there, and the political establishment are on notice: we intend to replace them.”

Meanwhile, Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr said: “There’s a reason our opponents are petrified of Reform UK, folks ... just look at that map. We're polling at record levels of support for both the party and our policies.

“Scotland is scunnered, Scotland needs Reform.”

James Mitchell, a professor of public policy at the University of Edinburgh, told the Sunday Times: “Reform’s apparent high support is the SNP’s greatest asset and best route back into government.

Protest

“It clearly consists of people who are very unhappy, even hostile, to the SNP but how attached they are to Reform is unclear. It is unmistakably a protest vote.”

“Reform is an obvious vehicle for signalling opposition at the moment when few people will be thinking about next year’s election. Labour's task is to harness that opposition.