To Ayrshire, where a former Tory councillor who quit the party in July has defected to Reform UK. North Ayrshire councillor Todd Ferguson has made the leap to Nigel Farage’s party, following in the footsteps of multiple independent and former Conservative councillors across Scotland. The blow is even more painful for Scottish Tory party leader Russell Findlay as he is a regional MSP for the area. Another one bites the dust…
Ferguson, who has been a councillor since 2017, quit the Conservative party in summer and has sat as independent – until now. He has become the third Reform councillor on North Ayrshire council, alongside Matthew McLean and Stewart Ferguson. Speaking about his move, Ferguson said:
Having served as a councillor for eight years, I’ve seen a lot of changes in our political landscape, and I believe this is an exciting time for a new direction in Scotland.
Certainly Farage’s party has been polling well north of the border, with some surveys even suggesting that Reform UK could become the second largest party after next year’s Holyrood election. The Scottish Conservatives have suffered from Reform’s popularity bounce, with the group having also lost an MSP, Graham Simpson, earlier this year to Farage’s party. The number of councillors that have abandoned the Tories is in the double figures, and Reform UK is keen to put the pressure on the blues in areas like the north east of Scotland. Farage’s men claim that Reform is on track to become the official opposition in the Scottish parliament next year, with insiders insisting that the Tories are ‘irrelevant’ and ‘finished’.
Currently the official opposition party in Holyrood, Findlay has his work cut out if he wants to avoid a wipeout next May…
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