Nigel Farage has officially launched his anti-immigrant Reform UK party in Scotland - a territory traditionally a bastion of left-wing political forces, Agence France-Presse reported. The launch came five months before local elections, BTA reports.
Farage, a Brexit supporter whose party is leading the polls in Britain, chose Falkirk, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, to launch the party's campaign. The city has been the scene of months of anti-immigrant protests, including outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.
"Who voted for areas of our cities to become virtually unrecognizable from their Scottish origins? "Nobody," Farage told hundreds of delegates at a party event in a local hotel today.
Farage also said that Britain is in complete economic, social and even moral decline.
He was joined on stage by Malcolm Offord, a former minister and former Conservative member of the House of Lords who is among the Conservatives who have defected to join Farage's party.
Reform UK could become the second-largest party in Scotland in next year's local elections in the spring, according to recent polls.
Farage's party remains far behind the left-wing Scottish National Party, which governs Scotland. But Farage's party in Scotland is ahead of Labour, which has been in power in Britain since spring last year.
"The migration crisis is one of the reasons why Reform UK is making progress in Scotland," Farage said today. For a year now, the issue has been the second biggest worry for Scots after the economy, according to a poll by Jugow.
Reform UK is expected to make a big comeback in Scotland to win over 20 percent compared to the 7 percent it received in the 2024 UK general election.
Farage's party has managed to attract opponents of Scottish independence to its side, but it has managed to stay out of this divisive debate in Scotland in order to focus on migration, the agency notes.
Farage also promises to remove carbon neutrality targets to encourage the development of North Sea deposits, which provide many jobs for Scotland.
Farage's party also aims to win the 2029 UK election, and the big loser from its rise is the Conservatives, notes Agence France-Presse.
But Farage has been criticized for racist and anti-Semitic remarks he made when he was a teenager. He denies these allegations, but with some ambiguity.