Nigel Farage has unveiled a Tory MSP has become the latest defector to Reform UK, but used the press conference to target traditional Labour and SNP voters with a jibe about Scotland’s biggest city.
Graham Simpson has become Reform’s second MSP with his defection, and he joined Mr Farage on stage in West Lothian.
He becomes the second ever Reform UK MSP – following former Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne’s defection in the last parliamentary session before Mr Farage became party leader.
Mr Simpson said it was an “absolute wrench” to leave the party he had first joined at the age of 15, but added he had earlier decided not to stand for the Tories in next year’s election.
He also denied a “backroom deal” had been done which will see him become Reform’s leader in Scotland. His speech ended with an open call to his former Tory colleagues to follow him to the Farage-led party.
“I’ve no doubt that, initially, my announcement today will spark anger, disappointment and probably some sheer nastiness,” he said.
“I don’t like that aspect of politics and I’m not looking forward to it, but there are many ex-colleagues who will also understand.
“I say to those who have great ideas for Scotland and who may have felt ignored: talk to me, you will find my door – wherever I am put in Parliament next week – open and receptive to the kind of fresh thinking that we need in politics.”
Mr Simpson said he does not expect to be made Reform UK leader in Scotland simply because he defected.
“I’m not coming here today as somebody who’s been parachuted in to be the Reform leader, that would be entirely wrong, it would be wrong for the members of Reform.
“I’m just here as I am, as an MSP.”
Mr Farage, meanwhile, used the press conference to target the SNP government and Labour opposition by claiming Glasgow is the “asylum capital of the UK”.
In a bid to win over traditional Labour and SNP voters ahead of next year’s crucial Holyrood elections, he used his mass deportation policy as a reason to back Reform claiming that Glasgow was not safe for women and children.
Mr Farage insisted that if illegal migrants “will not be in Glasgow at all” if he was in government “and certainly not allowed to walk on the streets.”
Mr Simpson last year backed Murdo Fraser in the Scottish Conservative leadership election to succeed Douglas Ross.
West Scotland MSP Russell Findlay instead won the contest.
