Reform MSP: I won’t attack individuals on the campaign trail

Scotland’s only Reform MSP has pledged not to get involved in personal attacks in the run-up to next year’s election.

Speaking exclusively to Holyrood, Graham Simpson said he was “not going to get down and dirty” and would instead stay focused on policy arguments.

He also spoke about needing to protect standards in public life, insisting he would call out anyone who falls short of those standards – even if it was from within his own party.

Simpson defected from the Conservatives to Reform over the summer, saying the outfit led by Nigel Farage offered a “blank slate” to build a “centre-right party”.

In his first major interview since defecting, Simpson said that despite the initial attack by a Conservative source, he has managed to continue good working relationships with most of his former colleagues.

He revealed one Conservative MSP is “not even looking at me, let alone talking to me” since then, but he refuses to name them.

He added: “Look, there’s a difference between slagging off Reform, which you’d expect to happen in the run up to a Scottish Parliament election, and slagging off the individual.

“I’ve also been very clear that I won’t indulge in that kind of behaviour. I’m not going to get down and dirty and start attacking individuals for their character or personality, when it should be a debate about policy.”

Reform drew criticism during the Hamilton by-election last year for an advert targeting Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, claiming he would “prioritise the Pakistani community”.

Simpson enjoyed a small victory last week after his bill to establish a recall system for Holyrood was agreed at stage one.

The proposal is designed to improve the accountability of MSPs and improve standards in politics.

Asked whether those standards had been met by Farage in relation to the Clacton property owned by his partner Laura Ferrari, Simpson said he had “no idea” because he had not “look at the case in any detail”.

But he went on: “If somebody in Reform has fallen foul of those standards, I’m happy to say that, as long as I have the details. I’m not afraid to say that. I’ll call that out.”

The MSP also spoke about the murder of his sister, Vikki Thomson, and the campaign to reform double jeopardy laws, his efforts to ban double jobbing, and wider reforms he would like to see at parliament.

He has been tasked with creating Reform’s manifesto going into next year, describing it as a “massive job” as not much thought had been given to devolved policy areas. “We are going to have to produce something that’s not just immigration and net zero,” he added.

Reform is currently on track, according to most recent polls, to see double-digit bloc at Holyrood next May.

On how many he would like to see returned to parliament, he said “over 20”. He continued: “It might sound ambitious, but you may as well be ambitious… At the moment, I would say around the 20-mark would be good, over that would be very good.”