SNP ACTING AS ‘RECRUITING SERGEANT’ FOR FARAGE, SCOTTISH LABOUR LEADER SAYS
The SNP has acted like a “recruiting sergeant” for Nigel Farage thanks to its failure to deliver good public services, the Scottish Labour leader has said.
Anas Sarwar said the “root cause” of the surge in support for Mr Farage’s Reform UK party in Scotland was the SNP’s “political failure” to competently run the NHS and the education system.
Before an anti-Right wing summit being hosted by John Swinney, Mr Sarwar argued that politicians who “helped fan the flames of divisive politics” could not claim to be “the ones to lead the fight against it”.
Mr Sarwar also argued that the First Minister was talking up the threat to Scotland posed by Reform UK, which he has used to justify holding the taxpayer-funded summit, because it was a “helpful political tool” for the SNP.
His intervention came ahead of the summit at Mr Swinney’s Bute House residence on Wednesday. The First Minister has said that he wants to try to “lock out” Reform from winning seats in next year’s Scottish Parliament election.
Polls have shown that Mr Farage’s party is on course to finish ahead of the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and possibly the Tories in the May 2026 contest.
Mr Swinney has invited civic, church and political party leaders to the gathering. However, Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, has declined.
Mr Findlay said that the event was “not required” and accused Mr Swinney of using the meeting to “deflect from the SNP’s dismal record”.
Reform UK, which denies being far-Right, has claimed that the meeting is really an “anti-democratic” attempt to curb its growing electoral support.
Mr Sarwar will attend but said: “After nearly two decades, the SNP’s failures and deflection has left many Scots politically disenfranchised and believing that politics does not work for them.
“The uncomfortable truth is that the failure of the SNP to provide the public services people rely on and live up to the hopes people put in them has acted as a recruiting sergeant for the rise of divisive politics.”
He added: “John Swinney is talking Reform UK up because it’s a helpful political tool for his party, rather than taking on the issues that are pushing people towards them.”
Mr Sarwar also argued that Scots did not need the “politics of Nigel Farage”, describing the Reform leader as “a man who wants to privatise the NHS and make working families pay for their medical treatment”.
But Mr Swinney said: “Across the world, we can see democratic systems under pressure, with fundamental principles being challenged and, in some cases, actively undermined. Scotland is not immune, so we must ensure we are prepared.
“As First Minister, I want to bring people together to help shape our response to these threats, and make sure we work together to protect and strengthen the democratic values that underpin who we are as Scots.”
Thomas Kerr, a Glasgow councillor who defected from the Tories to Reform, said that Mr Sarwar and Mr Swinney “are two peas in the same Left-wing socialist pod that has failed Scotland for generations”.
He accused Mr Sarwar of “showing nothing but utter contempt to those hard-working Scots who may vote Reform by taking part in a Nasty Nat anti-democratic summit”.
2025-04-22T05:27:15Z