Nigel Farage to visit Scotland ahead of Hamilton by-election

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is expected to make his first Scottish appearance in years as his party attempts a Holyrood breakthrough.

The Clacton MP is due to visit Aberdeen on Monday morning alongside deputy leader Richard Tice.

Reform does not have any elected representatives in Aberdeen, but it does have four councillors in neighbouring Aberdeenshire - all sitting members who joined the party in recent months.

The Aberdeen speech is expected to be a scene-setter in advance of next year's Scottish Parliament contest.

It is also anticipated that Brexit architect Farage will visit the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse constituency before people there go to the polls on Thursday.

The contest follows the death of incumbent Christina McKelvie, a Scottish Government minister.

Reform secured fewer than 60 votes in the constituency at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, but the party is expected to pick up more support this time.

Farage last visited Scotland in 2019. On a previous trip to Edinburgh in 2013, he was barricaded inside a Royal Mile pub before being escorted out by police.

Reform was last represented in the Scottish Parliament by Michelle Ballantyne MSP, who joined the party after leaving the Conservatives. She lost her seat in 2021.