Ash Regan: Nigel Farage tried to ‘smooth talk’ me into joining Reform

Ash Regan MSP has claimed that Nigel Farage tried to “smooth talk” her into joining Reform UK after a chance meeting at a party.

Regan, who recently left Alba to become an independent MSP, said the exchange with Farage came at a party hosted by The Spectator magazine.

However, she said she will not be joining Reform’s ranks.

Regan, a former SNP community justice minister, said: “I'm expecting that they will announce that they are a Unionist party and my political views are very much pro-independence, so I could never be in any way tempted to go to a Unionist party.”

In an interview with the Daily Record, she went on: “If I was a careerist, I would have taken that offer.”

Reform UK has said the claims are “categorically not true”.

But Regan said Reform first made contact through an aide in the spring, which she “declined” before later introducing herself to Farage at the party.

She said: “I put my hand out to introduce myself to him. And he said, ‘oh, I know who you are’. And then proceeded to sort of smooth talk me a little bit. I think he said something like ‘history's moving’ or something, and you should get on board with it. One of those kind of lines. And ‘when are you going home, maybe we should meet for lunch’.”

Polls suggest Reform could emerge from the upcoming Holyrood election as the parliament’s second largest party in contrast to Alba, which has yet to poll in double digits.

Regan left Alba over a difference in “direction” after Kenny MacAskill won the leadership contest to succeed late founder Alex Salmond. 

She said: “I think everybody can see that they are very much struggling to be relevant and to create that space in the minds of the Scottish public that they are a party to vote for at the next election.”

She went on: “If they are going to be looking like they are taking seats, I believe they really would need to change direction in the next few months in order to do that, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely.”

Responding to the claims, Reform UK said: “This is categorically not true.”