Political establishment ‘petrified’ of Reform, party candidate says

The Scottish political establishment is “petrified” of Reform UK doing well at Thursday’s Holyrood election, one of the party’s candidates has said.

Speaking at a campaign event in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Thomas Kerr said he was “very upbeat” about his party’s chances in Thursday’s election and that Reform is poised to send “shockwaves” through the political establishment.

Mr Kerr, who is standing in Glasgow Baillieston and Shettleston, also appeared to rule out post-election deals with other parties, saying he was only interested in seeing Lord Malcolm Offord elected as first minister.

“I am very, very confident and upbeat that I think we can do very, very well in this election,” he said.

“I think we’re going to send shockwaves right across the political establishment.

“I don’t think people are quite ready for it.

And I think that when we have MSPs elected, which I’m very confident of on Friday, you will see a group of people who have never been elected to public office in the Holyrood Parliament properly before.

“We’re going to go in there and we’re going to challenge the status quo, and we’re going to shake up the political establishment, and that’s why they’re petrified.”
He added: “I want to see Malcolm Offord elected into Bute House as first minister of this country.

“I’m not interested in putting John Swinney or Anas Sarwar into Bute House.

What I want to see is real, fundamental change for this country.”
Mr Kerr was also asked about his party’s plans, announced earlier this week, to open migration detention centres in areas that back the Scottish Greens .

It was put to him that a recent YouGov poll had found only 19% of voters find it “acceptable” for a government to base decisions that affect particular areas on which way that constituency voted.

This compared with 45% who found it either “somewhat” or “completely” unacceptable, and 36% who said they “don’t know”.

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Even among Reform voters 37% said it was either “somewhat” or “completely” unacceptable, compared with 34% who said the opposite.

Mr Kerr responded: “I don’t care if it’s a vote winner or not.

“It’s about fairness.

It’s about trying to make sure that the public understand what you get when you vote for extremists in the Green Party.

“This is a party that backs mass migration.

This is a party that doesn’t believe in borders.

They want open borders.

“So, what we are very clearly saying to people is if you vote for the Greens, then you have to live with the consequences.

“And that is these sort of asylum centres in your communities.

This is the detention centres that you would see.

“Politics shouldn’t be governed by opinion polls.

Politics should be governed by principles and by the facts.

“The facts are that if you vote for an extremist party, you have to live with the consequences.”
He added that the policy would only apply to constituencies that elect a Green MSP and that it would not apply to MSPs elected through regional lists under Scotland’s alternative vote system.

He went on: “The Greens are currently standing in constituencies across Scotland – including two here in Edinburgh, in Edinburgh Central, where they could win, (and) two in Glasgow, in Glasgow South Side, in Glasgow Maryhill and Kelvin.

“If they win those constituencies, we have been very open and very clear.

(Those are) the communities where these would happen, but that wouldn’t happen until after the general election, so there will be one more election as well.

“I think that’s fair.

I think that’s honest with the public, and I think it’s being brutally honest – the fact if you vote Green, you live with the consequences, which is mass illegal migration and mass migration in open borders.”