Tory becomes first MSP to defect to Nigel Farage's Reform

Key Points

The first Tory MSP has defected to Nigel Farage’s party
Graham Simpson announced he had joined Reform UK at a press conference in Scotland
The event was held the day after Farage announced plans to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers if Reform win power
Farage said there will be a Scottish leader of Reform UK ahead of the Holyrood election next year
The Reform UK leader said Glasgow as the ‘asylum capital of the UK’

A Scottish Conservative has become the first MSP to defect to Nigel Farage’s party during a Reform UK press conference in Edinburgh.

Graham Simpson, who represents Central Scotland, revealed he had ditched Russell Findlay’s party at Holyrood during a speech on Wednesday morning.

“Leaving the party that I first joined when I was 15 is an enormous wrench and I’ve done a lot of soul searching in the last few weeks,” he said.

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The Reform leader said illegal migration was set to become a bigger debate in Scotland.

The former frontbencher was elected in 2016. He said he thought the Tories’ electoral hopes were “diminishing fast”.

“I honestly thought the most likely scenario for me was to move on to the next stage of my life and find a job,” he said.

“But I watched Reform with interest and see the opportunity to create something fresh here.

“The political class is not serving the people well.”

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Accusations were levelled by a Conservative source after Graham Simpson announced his defection.

Simpson said he came to the decision over the summer and it had not been easy.

He is the latest Tory politician to leave the party recently. Last week, Jeremy Balfour MSP resigned from the party to sit as an independent.

Balfour said the Scottish Conservatives had “fallen into the trap of reactionary politics” and that a “positive, proactive agenda for real change” had been rejected.

In April, Jamie Greene MSP quit the Tories over its “Reform-lite agenda” and “Trump-esque narrative”. He said the party he joined years ago “simply no longer exists”.

Simpson is the second MSP to have represented the party at Holyrood. Michelle Ballantyne, a former Scottish Conservatives leadership hopeful who quit the party to sit as an independent, was chosen to lead Farage’s party in Scotland in January 2021. She lost her seat shortly after.

In an open call to his former Tory colleagues, the new Reform UK MSP Simpson said his door will be open to those with “great ideas for Scotland”.

“I’ve no doubt that, initially, my announcement today will spark anger, disappointment and probably some sheer nastiness,” he said.

“I don’t like that aspect of politics and I’m not looking forward to it, but there are many ex-colleagues who will also understand.

“I say to those who have great ideas for Scotland and who may have felt ignored: talk to me, you will find my door – wherever I am put in Parliament next week – open and receptive to the kind of fresh thinking that we need in politics.”

A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “We remain focused on holding the SNP and Labour to account.

“The Scottish Conservatives are determined to provide positive common-sense solutions to drive our economy forward, so we can reduce NHS waiting lists and invest more in education.

“Nigel Farage has said he’s content with another five years of SNP government. We’re going to keep focusing on how to get the Nationalists out of power.”

Following the announcement he would cross the floor to become Reform UK’s sole MSP, Simpson was criticised by other parties at Holyrood.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said he is the latest Tory to “flee their sinking ship in a bid to save their own career”.

She added: “It’s clear that Reform are simply Tories by another name, but neither party has any answers to the challenges Scotland faces.”

Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie described the move as “desperate opportunism” and claimed Reform UK is the “first choice for failed Tory politicians”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the defection shows the Conservatives are in “freefall”, adding: “I had hoped that the Scottish Liberal Democrats would overtake them at the Scottish election but if this keeps up, we’ll achieve that goal long before then.”