Nigel Farage will make his first political visit north of the border in six years this week, causing intense excitement in the Scottish media. The Reform UK leader’s trips here rarely pass without incident, including the time he sought refuge from protesters in an Edinburgh pub or when a nearby branch of McDonald’s was asked by police not to sell milkshakes. Activists are already targeting the visit to Hamilton. Which is, of course, precisely what the media-hungry Farage wants.
To date, media coverage of the Scottish parliamentary by-election campaign in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in the heart of the central belt has breathlessly predicted a Reform breakthrough, which could push Scottish Labour into third place according to several commentators. First Minister John Swinney has railed against Farage, holding a cross-party summit that inevitably provided even more free publicity for the Clacton MP.
If Labour fails to win this by-election, it will be as much to do with Farage bailing out Swinney as it is with Keir Starmer’s teething problems in government.
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