Swinney: Scotland must be alive to the threat of Farage after English elections

Scotland must be “alive” to the “threat” of Nigel Farage, the First Minister has said, after Reform UK’s strong performance in England’s local elections.

John Swinney accused Labour and the Conservatives of making a “fundamental mistake” by “cosying up” to the right-wing party.

The SNP leader said Labour’s loss of one of their safest seats in England has shown how “out of touch” the party are with voters.

Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin beat Sir Keir Starmer’s candidate Karen Shore by six votes in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, taking the seat which Labour won with a majority of almost 14,700 less than a year ago.

Elsewhere, Labour narrowly retained mayoralties in both Doncaster and North Tyneside, with Reform coming a close second in both.

The First Minister described Nigel Farage and his party as a “real threat to the established political parties” south of the border.

He urged Scottish voters to “realise that Labour is failing to use their leadership to change lives for the better”.

He said: “Farage is now a real threat to the established political parties south of the border. And as a consequence of that, it indicates that the agenda that he peddles has got significant appeal to individuals, and that has got to be tackled.

“But the other thing that it highlights is the abject failure of the Labour Government to deliver change for people in this country.

“Folk in Scotland need to look at that very, very carefully and to realise that the Labour Government, which has removed winter fuel payments, which have been restored by the SNP Government, by my government, is an illustration of how out of touch the Labour Government is and they’re going to make it much worse by intensifying child poverty as a consequence of the welfare reforms.”

Swinney accused Labour and the Conservatives of making a “fundamental mistake” by “cosying up” to the right-wing party.

Results are still pouring in from England’s council elections but Farage’s party already returned more than 100 councillors by Friday afternoon.

Swinney accused the former Ukip leader of giving voters “false hope”.

“The results coming in from England demonstrate that Farage is a real political threat,” he said, “and the Labour and Conservative parties have made fundamental mistakes in dealing with Farage because they have cosied up to them, rather than confronting them.

“The Scottish National Party has every intention of confronting the politics of Farage because they are politics that are populist, they are deceptive, they give people false hope, and they blame others, and the SNP will confront those politics.”

Asked if Reform UK’s victories could be replicated at next year’s Holyrood elections, the SNP leader said: “We’ve got to be alive to the political threat from Farage and the answer to Farage is to confront him – it’s not to cosy up to him.

“The Labour Party and the Conservatives have cosied up to Farage, and look where it’s got them in England.

“Well, I have absolutely no intention of cosying up to Farage.

“I’ll give the political leadership to the SNP and to Scotland that will confront the politics of Farage, because his politics are divisive, they provide people with false hopes, and they are fundamentally damaging to our society and our democratic values, and they have to be confronted.”

Sir Keir Starmer has defended taking “tough decisions” after Labour figures hit out at the party’s record in government in the wake of its local election results.

A newly re-elected mayor hit out at Sir Keir’s changes to the winter fuel allowance, hikes to employer national insurance contributions and welfare reforms, while MPs have warned that voters want “change”.

Sir Keir told Sky News: “The reason that we took the tough but right decisions in the budget was because we inherited a broken economy.”

“Maybe other prime ministers would have walked past that, pretended it wasn’t there … I took the choice to make sure our economy was stable.”

The Prime Minister went on: “Yes, they were tough decisions, they were the right decisions. Because of those decisions we are now seeing waiting lists coming down, something people desperately want.

“Because of that, pensioners are now £470 up as of last month. These are really important changes we’ve brought about, but yes, they’re political choices.”

Ros Jones was narrowly re-elected as mayor of Doncaster, beating the Reform candidate by just under 700 votes.

Speaking to the BBC after her result, she said that Labour need to “be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street”.

She said: “I wrote as soon as the winter fuel allowance was actually mooted, and I said it was wrong, and therefore I stepped in immediately and used our household support fund to ensure no-one in Doncaster went cold during the winter.”

The increase in national insurance was “hitting some of our smaller businesses” and the squeeze on the personal independence payment was leaving many people “worried”, Jones said.

She added: “I think the results here tonight will demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people, with the people.”

A newly elected Labour MP has also said the by-election result should mean “Labour must change course” and that the “first ten months” in Government “haven’t been good enough”.

Brian Leishman, who represents Alloa and Grangemouth, posted on X on Friday morning: “People voted for real change last July & an end to austerity.

“The first ten months haven’t been good enough or what the people want & if we don’t improve people’s living standards then the next government will be an extreme right-wing one.”

A Labour spokesperson said by-elections are “always difficult for the party in Government” and the circumstances of this vote “made it even harder”.

They said: “Voters are still rightly furious with the state of the country after 14 years of failure and clearly expect the Government to move faster with the plan for change.”