Alex Cole-Hamilton: Highland SNP MSPs 'are going to have more time to spend with their families' after the election

A former winner of Holyrood’s Open All Hours award which recognises hard-working MSPs, Alex Cole-Hamilton admits that politics consumes most of his life. There’s little time for anything else – even around the dinner table, he and his family are often deep in discussion about the big political stories of the day. 

It’s been a hectic 12 months for the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader. True to the party’s colourful electioneering style, he campaigned across Scotland alongside UK leader Ed Davey in the run-up to last July’s general election – a night Davey hailed as “record-breaking” as the party secured 71 MPs, up 61 on the previous parliament. In Scotland, Cole-Hamilton and his team played their part, winning six seats – an increase of two. 

The campaigning didn’t stop there. Over the past year, his party has secured four council by-election victories, while Cole-Hamilton also found time in late October to cross the Atlantic and canvass for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the US election. 

He has also been steadfast in his support for Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion. He hosted a Ukrainian student for nine months and recently joined a cross-party group of MPs and MSPs in personally delivering five ambulances to the country. 

Around his office, the signs of his global outlook are unmistakable: a large photo from his US campaign hangs on the wall, alongside Ukrainian and Canadian flags – the latter a nod to his defiance of Trump’s claims that he would make Canada the 51st state. 

But his biggest test lies here at Holyrood at the Scottish Parliament election next May. Although Cole-Hamilton doesn’t think the result in 2021, where the party saw just four MSPs elected, was damaging, he does think the Lib Dems “went backwards”.  

“But if you look at the constituencies, we built citadels,” he says. 

“Willie Rennie had the best campaign that election, but we were squeezed out by that anxiety that still existed around the pandemic; he consolidated our survival. There will always be Liberal Democrats in Scotland because of Willie Rennie. And while we took a step back a little, he laid a foundation on which to build. That led to the success in the council elections the following year and it’s been part of our success in the general election. 

“Now we’re really excited about what’s coming.” 

It’s been a good year for the party at Holyrood. Following on from four important council by-election wins, it gained a new MSP, Jamie Greene, who defected from the Tories in April. The move puts the party on five seats, making it an official parliamentary group and earning it a seat on the parliamentary bureau, effectively ending the SNP’s majority there.  

Cole-Hamilton and his party also struck a budget deal with the Scottish Government, securing £16.7m in targeted funding. It included money for drugs and neonatal services – notably £1m for support for babies born addicted to drugs – and dedicated provision for long Covid sufferers. The agreement also secured an extra £1m for hospices, £3m towards nature restoration, protection for Scotland’s only additional support needs further education institution, Corseford College, expanded free school meal eligibility in eight council areas, and added flexibility for Orkney Council funding. 

Cole-Hamilton says “a lot of people were telling us it was risky” to support the budget.  

“The reality is we can’t force the end of this government with an early election, the Scottish Parliament is not designed that way, and I didn’t get into politics to shout from the sidelines. If I can roll my sleeves up and get the government of the day to day to commit millions of pounds to hospice care or for long Covid or any other key priorities, then I will.” 

Recent polling suggests that the Lib Dems could return between eight and 11 seats at the election in May. And while this would represent the best result for the party since 2007, a role in government seems further away than it did last June, with Labour’s polling taking a dent since it took charge at Westminster, reducing the chances of a coalition between Cole-Hamilton’s and Anas Sarwar’s parties. 

However, with Labour’s recent by-election win in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, some have suggested the tide could be turning again. Regardless, Cole-Hamilton seems relaxed about the possibility. “I don’t leap out of bed every morning thinking ‘how do I become the next deputy first minister of Scotland?’ But I don’t fear it. As I said, I didn’t get into politics to shout from the opposition benches.  

“Power is important in politics, and with it you can do big and important things.” 

I ask him what some of his red lines would be in working with another party in 2026. “We’re not going to sign up to anything that is not liberal, that doesn’t put communities at the heart of the prospectus for government. We won’t go into government with the SNP and I can’t see a circumstance where we go into a coalition with the Conservative Party either, because both of those parties are in large part the problem. I struggle to see a coalition with those parties, as well as Reform for that matter.” 

He adds that at the moment the Labour Party at Westminster is “disappointing a lot of people”, but with it being only one year into government “the jury is still out”. 

“We are prepared to do deals in terms of budgets and pieces of legislation that we have common ground on, and we are open to discussion about a change in government, but it needs to be a progressive government that represents real change for Scotland. I’m not sure the Conservatives or the SNP can offer that.” 

Cole-Hamilton thinks he has gained momentum leading up to the Scottish Parliament elections. He points to the general election last year and how well the party performed in the Highlands, and in particular winning back Charles Kennedy’s old seat in the final declaration. He says: “That was hugely emotional for us and puts us in a really great position to sweep the Highlands at the election.” 

The Highlands is the primary target for new Lib Dem constituency seats and, in April, Cole-Hamilton told the party conference in Inverness that it is setting its sights on Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes’ and drugs minister Maree Todd’s seats. He has added Fergus Ewing’s constituency to that list too, and that could now be in sight with Ewing announcing he will run as an independent which could split the nationalist vote, allowing the Lib Dems a much easier run at the seat. “As much as I like them, we are putting Kate Forbes, Fergus Ewing and Maree Todd on notice that they are going to have more time to spend with their families because the Lib Dems are coming back in the Highlands.” 

He adds: “The election in 2021 was a very different election. We were still in the teeth of the Covid emergency, people had 18 months of tuning into Nicola Sturgeon every lunchtime for instructions on how to stay alive. They were hanging on her every word, and as such [the SNP] were rewarded at the ballot box. 

“Since then, they have lost a third of their vote and the only reason they are doing so well in the polls is because Labour have collapsed around them. But from loch to glen there is an atmosphere for change, and in the places we are proving to be the challenger people are leaping into our arms.” 

He tells me he has been knocking on doors in Forbes’ constituency and says that though “there may be a personal affection for Kate, that is not enough to transcend the national antipathy towards the SNP”.  

He says another reason to believe there is real appetite for the Lib Dems in that area is the Fort William by-election that followed Angus MacDonald’s election to Westminster. The party won 60 per cent of the vote in an area which Cole-Hamilton describes as the “trickiest part” of the constituency seat at Holyrood.   

While he says he doesn’t want to put a limit on his ambition for this upcoming election, he says they are targeting 10 constituencies, with a further three he believes are in “areas of traditional strength in West Aberdeenshire, the Borders and in Argyll and Bute”.  

The Scottish Lib Dem leader meets Holyrood on the day of the Hamilton by-election. It was a campaign that at times was overshadowed by an advert that Reform UK put out on social media that used clips of Sarwar discussing representation for Pakistani and South Asian communities in Scottish politics while making the claim: “Anas Sarwar has said he will prioritise the Pakistani community.” The Labour leader never made any such statement. It led many from across Holyrood’s benches to accuse Reform of racism. 

Cole-Hamilton is one of those who condemned the campaign advert as racist. He adds it is “hugely dispiriting,” and it should have “no part in our politics”.  

“I also resent it for the fact that we’ve spent so much time talking about it. The people of Hamilton, and the rest of the country, would be far more interested in talking about whether there is an NHS dentist near them, why they have to wait in line on the phone for a GP appointment every single morning, why there’s violence in overcrowded classrooms, and why they are struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month. 

“It is depressing that we’re being dragged onto Nigel Farage’s turf when actually he doesn’t care about Scotland or our politics.” 

He adds: “We talk too much about Reform; they are a vehicle for people who are fed up. But they don’t have to settle for Nigel Farage.” 

I ask Cole-Hamilton how a Scottish Government influenced by the Scottish Liberal Democrats would make Scots feel better off. He says “things won’t be fixed overnight” but there are immediate improvements to public services that could be made, such as streamlining primary care. 

“In terms of the economy, I want to make the Lib Dems the party of small business and growth. Under the SNP, we have become a public service economy, the lion’s share of people in the country are employed by the state, which is fine because I believe in state-supplied services, but we are having to do more with less because both governments have failed to grow the economy. 

“We need to be doing more to attract people to Scotland, especially wealth creators and innovators, but we are not doing that at the moment. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about that from me.”