Scottish Reform candidate suspended over Covid loan

A Reform candidate who funnelled tens of thousands of pounds in Covid loan cash to his personal account has been suspended.

Stuart Niven was yesterday announced as one of the 73 MSP hopefuls set to contest the election for Nigel Farage’s party.

He has now been suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation, after The Herald revealed that the breach of the government loans scheme had seen him disqualified from acting as a company director.

Niven, named as Reform’s Dundee City West candidate, applied for a Bounce Back Loan of £50,000 in November 2020 and received the taxpayer support the next day, before transferring the funds to his personal account.

The former paratrooper said the money was lost in an investment.

His Britannia Maritime Security Ltd entered liquidation in December 2023 and Niven was then placed on the Companies House disqualified directors register, having provided a disqualification undertaking which states that he caused the firm “to breach the terms and conditions of the Bounce Back Loan” scheme by “failing to use the funds obtained” from it for the economic benefit of the business.

The disqualification undertaking was given to the Insolvency Service to end court action on the matter.

The prohibition began last month and runs until 2033.

Reform UK Scotland said: “We take allegations like this very seriously and a full investigation is under way.”

The development comes with less than 50 days to go until the vote and coincides with revelations that another candidate, Fife North East hopeful Linda Holt, called Humza Yousaf an “Islamist moron” and contended that he is “not British”. Another, Galloway and West Dumfries choice Senga Beresford, posted online messages supporting the deportation of British Muslims and in support of far-right activist and convicted fraudster Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.

Malcolm Offord, Reform’s leader in Scotland, defended “fruity” comments by the candidates.

He told the BBC: “I’ve been very clear that we have brought in a whole range of candidates, 80 percent of whom are not politicians.

“They’re real people with real lives who said real things in a past life, okay? This was said before she was a candidate. She wasn’t even a member of the party at that time.

“What we’ve got is a situation in all our lives, in the past, we’ve made comments that might sometimes be intemperate, but the issue with this modern world we live in is everything is now written down and remembered.”

The rows come despite candidate training materials that advised Reform hopefuls to stay “under the radar” online and avoid commenting on political matters.

The “biggest threat” to Reform’s standing “is Reform itself”, the materials stated.