The Clacton MP pledged to ‘challenge the Holyrood consensus’.
Nigel Farage joined Reform UK’s Scotland leader Lord Malcolm Offord in Renfrewshire today to launch the party’s Scottish parliamentary election manifesto and pledged to to âchallenge the Holyrood consensusâ.
In an economy-focused manifesto, Lord Offord promised Reform UK would be led by âguiding principlesâ of sound finances and economic growth, while also cutting waste in the public sector.
However, the manifesto is not without challenge: several journalists picked up on Reform’s plans to drop all quangos until Reform UK could establish which ones needed saving.
In addition to laying off thousands of civil servants, the move would impact Scottish health boards and agencies such as Scottish Water.
Lord Offord told the conference the matter required âbeing rational in a professional wayâ.
He said. “We need to grow the private sector â we’re going to grow the private sector â we’ll make wages better in the private sector, and if thereâs dislocations from the public sector, thereâll be good jobs to be had in the private sector instead.â
Other pledges include increasing the prison population and putting more police on the streets to combat crime.
Speaking on the public debate about the Ramadan Tent Projectâs open Iftar, which saw 3,000 Muslims praying in London’s Trafalgar Square, Mr Farage called for a ban on mass religious observance.
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He described the event as an âattempt to overtake, intimidate and dominate our way of lifeâ.
Pushed on similar action being taken against other religious groups, such as Christians and Jews, he admitted âwe have to get this right”.
âWe canât stop individuals from praying â we wouldnât want to stop individuals praying â but mass prayer is banned… mass Muslim prayer is banned in many Muslim countries in the Middle East itself.
âSo yes, we have to stop this kind of mass demonstration, provocative demonstration, in historic British sites, because thatâs what it is.â
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Following on from MP Sarah Pochinâs admission she had never tried Scotch whisky and Lord Offordâs pledge to raise growth from 1 per cent to 3 per cent, Mr Farage implored Scottish members to put energy at the top of their list of priorities.
Speaking exclusively to GB News before the event, Mr Farage mused he did not have much in common politically with the late First Minister Alex Salmond, but agreed on Scotlandâs oil wealth.
He said: âItâs a funny one because Alex Salmond all those years ago recognised that oil was the one big card that he had in arguing for Scottish separation.
âHe didnât have many others in my view,â he admitted. “And the SNP completely turned their backs on this and aligned with Conservatives and Labour.
âThis goes back to what I said earlier, Scottish politics have become very samey.â
Elsewhere in north of the Border, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar described the event as âthe Farage circus came to townâ.
He lambasted Mr Farageâs âtoxic, poisonous politicsâ and insisted only Scottish Labour can âprevent Reform getting a foothold in Scotlandâ.
This is despite a year of opinion polls showing Reform UK leeching potential votes from Labour and the Conservatives.
He accused Reform UK of being ârelaxed about another five years of SNP ruleâ and said Lord Offord and Mr Farage only quicken the nationalistsâ pace towards independence.
GB News asked Mr Farage whether he could find any common ground with current First Minister John Swinney in the event the SNP retain governance in May and he becomes Britain’s next prime minister.
A chasm between the two leadersâ ideals on opening up the North Sea, with the SNP consistently driving towards a Net Zero future.
âIf that scenario was to occur,â began Mr Farage, âI think youâd find John Swinney would change his mind or at least altering it and moving it in a more sensible direction”.
Alongside the Scottish manifesto, Reform unveiled 73 candidates â one to fight every constituency seat across Scotland, although another key Reform pledge is to reduce the number of Scottish constituencies to 57.
The party revealed the list seat candidates for Scotlandâs secondary first-past-the-post regional vote, which will be unveiled next week.
