Do not take risk of importing divisive politics, Swinney tells Hamilton voters

First Minister John Swinney has warned voters in Hamilton not to “take the risk” on voting for Reform in a “critical” by-election this week.

Voters are due to go to the polls in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse on Thursday, with the SNP, Labour and Reform vying to send an MSP to Holyrood.

The tone in the campaign has regularly turned nasty as the two leading parties try to fend off the threat of Reform, with the Nigel Farage-led party being accused of racism following an attack ad on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

Speaking in Aberdeen on Monday, the Reform leader doubled down on the attacks, claiming a speech the Labour leader made encouraging more people of south Asian background to enter politics was “sectarian”.

Speaking to journalists during a visit to a children’s soft play charity in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, the First Minister was asked what he would say to people who were fed up with politics and politicians to the point where Reform becomes a viable option.

“I’d say to those people, first of all, I understand how they’re feeling, because standards of living have not improved in the way that people would have had reasonable expectations,” he said.

“Why is that the case? It’s because of Brexit – and Nigel Farage is the author of Brexit.

“I would say to those people, don’t go to the guy for a solution who gave you the problem in the first place.”

He added: “I would also say, don’t take the risk of importing divisive politics into our country, because it’s far too important for all of us to stick together.”

The First Minister also stressed the importance of the by-election to his own party, who at last year’s general election haemorrhaged MPs, dropping from 48 to just nine just weeks after Mr Swinney took over as leader.

“It’s very important, I view it as critical,” he said.

“I’ve been here a lot and we’ve fought a big campaign here.”

He said the party has fought so hard in the constituency in honour of former minister Christina McKelvie, whose death sparked the contest, as well as it being a “big political test for us”.

“A year ago, we suffered a huge defeat in the Westminster general election,” he said.

“We’ve learned lessons from that, we’ve gathered ourselves, we’ve addressed different priorities, we’ve focused very much on the concerns of the public.

“I set out, when I became First Minister a year ago, that I had to rebuild the relationship between the public and the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Government, and that’s what I’ll do.”

Meanwhile, Mr Farage is due to visit Hamilton on Monday during a visit to Scotland after addressing the media in Aberdeen.

Asked about the attack ad against Mr Sarwar, the Reform leader said: “I think that speech he gave was sectarian in its very nature – we are the south Asian community, we are going to take over the country and take over the world.

“We believe what he said was a form of sectarian politics and we don’t like it one little bit.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is also in Scotland, announcing the outcome of the UK Government’s strategic defence review, but he is not expected to campaign in the seat.

Speaking at a shipyard in the Govan area of Glasgow, the Prime Minister said on Monday morning: “I can’t imagine anybody who seriously wants to be prime minister of this country coming to Scotland and saying that the first priority is not the safety and security of Scotland, consider the consequences of somebody as prime minister saying that.

“And remind ourselves that at this time of renewed threat and instability across Europe the SNP’s position is to get rid of our nuclear deterrent, the single most important part of our capability that has kept Scotland and the United Kingdom safe for many, many years.”

Reform, he said, “want to spend tens of billions of pounds but won’t say where the money is coming from, completely unfunded, uncosted – that is what Liz Truss did, that’s what blew up the economy”.

Asked why he was not campaigning on the doorstep in the by-election contest, he said: “My firm belief is only Labour can beat the SNP in Hamilton.

“My firm belief is that my job as Prime Minister is to deliver for the whole of Scotland, including Hamilton and everybody involved in that by-election.”