A TORY MSP has defected to Reform UK in a major boost to Nigel Farage’s party.
Graham Simpson, who represents Central Scotland, was unveiled by Mr Farage at an event in Uphall, Lothian, today.
Nigel Farage promised ‘special announcement’ before unveiling first Reform MSPPA
Nigel Farage pictured with Graham Simpson at a campaign event
Mr Farage is campaigning in Scotland amid plans for mass deportationAlamy
Mr Simpson becomes Reform UK’s first MSP, following a string of defections to the party in local government in Scotland, where they now have 16 councillors.
Mr Simpson has long been at odds with Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, and opposed his leadership bid last year.
The defection comes months after the Tory MSP privately rubbished rumours he was going to jump ship to Reform UK.
Mr Simpson said he had decided earlier this year not to stand again for the Scottish Tories, but it was not until the past few weeks he had chosen to move to Reform UK.
He said: “I watched Reform with interest and I see the opportunity to help create something fresh here in Scotland, and it’s clear that the voters agree in increasing numbers.
“But just because a party is becoming popular isn’t a reason to join it, keeping your job in Parliament isn’t a good enough reason either.”
He added: “Too many people feel let down and ignored, they feel the system is against them, that the traditional parties don’t even care about them.
Mr Simpson will not step down from the Central Scotland regional list at Holyrood following his defection, he has announced.
Reform UK’s first MSP said he still has work to do as an MSP, including a members’ Bill which would create a mechanism for sacking MSPs.
Mr Simpson also said he would seek to “develop a policy suite” which goes beyond Reform’s two key issues in Scotland of net zero and immigration.
It comes after Mr Farage has promised a “special announcement” after a poll showed a surge in concerns about immigration among Scots voters.
The Reform UK leader is due in Uphall, Lothian, for a press conference the day after sparking a major row over his plans to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers in five years if his party wins the next General Election.
And 80 minutes ahead of his event, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “I will make a special announcement in Edinburgh this morning”, along with a Saltire emoji.
He added: “Watch it from 11am in all the usual places.”
The Macdonald Houston House Hotel, where the press conference is due to be held, is around 20 miles from Edinburgh.
Sources say his visit has been timed due to debate flaring over immigration in Scotland over the past week, with protests spreading to Scotland over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
And poll findings this month showed 21 per cent of Scots list immigration as one of their top three concerns from 29 topics – up from just four per cent around two years ago.
Insiders say Mr Farage is hoping to cash in on growth, with Reform surging from almost no support in Scotland to above 15 per cent in the past year.
Last week, we told how Glasgow was the asylum seeker capital of the UK, with 3,884 migrants seeking permission to remain in the city.
The figure is on top of refugees – who have been granted leave to remain – who are heading to Glasgow to take advantage of Scotland’s broader homelessness laws.
On Tuesday, Nigel Farage warned of a “genuine threat to public order” without action to tackle illegal migration as he and fellow Reform bigwig Zia Yusuf launched the party’s plans at London Oxford Airport.
Reform UK described its Operation Restoring Justice as a five-year emergency programme to detain and deport illegal migrants and deter future arrivals that they would enact if elected to government.
Protests have taken place this month at flashpoints across the UK, where around 32,000 asylum seekers are staying in so-called contingency hotels, despite Labour pledging to end their use by 2029.
As Mr Farage headed to his event at a hotel in Uphall, West Lothian, SNP MP Stephen Gethins hit out at his tactics.
Mr Gethins, the SNP foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster, questioned parts of Reform strategy policy – which could see a future UK government potentially work with the Taliban to send people back to Afghanistan, with Britain also leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Nats MP argued that Brexit had “pushed up the small boats crisis” in the UK, as it means those seeking asylum are forced to do so in the first country they arrive in.
Mr Gethins told BBC Radio Scotland: “He is the architect, along with people like Boris Johnson, and others of the small boats crisis.
“Now he wants to remove us from the European Convention on Human Rights, which was the convention introduced at the end of the Second World War to give us some of the most basic rights, like prohibition of torture and right to life and all these other basic things we take for granted.”
Former Tory immigration minister Chris Philp – now shadow home secretary – previously suggested Boris Johnson’s government had been taken by surprise that Brexit had made returning illegal immigrants more difficult.
A European Parliament briefing this year said “Now that the UK is outside the EU, it can no longer return asylum applicants to the first EU country of arrival as it could under the Dublin Regulation, which ceased to apply on 1 January 2021.”
However, the UK’s membership of the EU did not stop all asylum arrivals, with a list of member countries not applying the Dublin rules.
And the European Parliament briefing also cited wars for a rise in migration to the UK and said: “The driver behind the significant increase in net migration therefore seems to be linked to many factors.”
But Reform councillor Ross Lambie defended the party’s immigration policy, saying: “My view on it and Reform’s view on it is that largely, if not all, of those people crossing the Channel are bogus asylum seekers who are, at best they’re here to gain the benefits system of this country.
“At worst, they could be here to do us harm.”
He told BBC Radio Scotland that those coming to the UK in small boats are “not people fleeing” oppressive regimes and are “obscuring their identity”.
Mr Lambie added this involves either “hiding their past” or “actually hiding their true country of origin”.
Mr Farage claimed this week that Britain was being “invaded” by “undocumented young males of fighting age”.
Mr Lambie backed the suggestion of an immigrant invasion, insisting “more people have come over on small boats than participated in the D Day landings”.
Mr Farage’s last visit to Scotland came ahead of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election in June, when he gave protesters the slip in Hamilton.
Abdul Bostani, the founder and director of refugee support organisation Glasgow Afghan United, told Mornings, on BBC Radio Scotland, that Nigel Farage’s language is “dangerous”.
He said many refugees in Glasgow are working towards qualifications in nursing and engineering and will be “an asset to Scotland”.
He said: “The birthrate in Scotland is declining so we need new people.”
Mr Bostani also condemned suggestions that Reform UK would work with the Taliban to repatriate migrants who did not work with British forces during the war in Afghanistan.
Mr Farage’s last visit to Scotland came ahead of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election in June, when he gave protesters the slip in Hamilton.
GettyMr Farage has vowed to make a special announcement on visit to Scotland[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
