Severin Carrell, the Guardian‘s ‘Scotland Editor‘ has this today:
Reform UK has suspended one of its Scottish candidates after it emerged he had been struck off as a company director, and the party faces growing attacks for fielding candidates making Islamophobic remarks.
Reform confirmed on Friday morning it had suspended Stuart Niven, its candidate for Dundee City West, after the Herald revealed he had been struck off after diverting tens of thousands of pounds of Covid grants into his personal account.
Several hours after that admission, claims within Reform’s Scottish manifesto that it could save billions of pounds in Holyrood spending were dismissed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, which described many of its pledges as “not fiscally credible” and “unserious at best”.
Reform had faced a succession of attacks from across the political spectrum about the conduct of several candidates only hours after Nigel Farage unveiled the 73 Reform UK hopefuls standing for May’s Scottish parliament election. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/20/reform-uk-suspends-scottish-candidate-stuart-niven
See that ‘across the political spectrum’ bit? You might justifiably expect to hear what the larger SNP and Conservative parties had to say about Reform UK. Maybe even the Greens after they beat them in Manchester?
What follows is 13 paragraphs featuring comment only from Anas Sarwar and a big picture of him looking like a head boy pretending to be a politician.
Could Severin have broadened his writing ‘across the political spectrum or have the other parties been too quiet on Reform UK to be heard? Nope, see the image at the top of this report.
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Talking-up Scotland 
As the great real journalist Jon Pilger said, the Guardian is a pretendy lefty paper.
It has form in being totally anti SNP, very biased and of course it’s what many in England and too many in Scotland, take as a factual rag when the opposite is in fact the case, it’s biased as heck. NO thanks to the ‘Guardian’ a propaganda sheet, a phoney rag.
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The population of Scotland remained the same from 1900 and before. 5million. Until 2000 Devolution. Better governance. Population increased 5.4million. People could stay in Scotland instead of migration. Scotland one of the least highly densely populated countries in the world. 2% Muslim. 2% black. Integrated.
Westminster governance caused migration from Scotland. Illegal Treaty of Union. The Jacobite Rebellion 1715, 1745. The Clearances. Migration. To US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada. 40million Scottish diaporia because of Westminster policy. £10 passage to Australia.
Scotland was not treated equaly. Its revenues and resources were taken to fund London S/E. Illegally and secretly. Kept secret under the Official Secrets Act. Trident. Thatcher. Nuclear etc. Westminster illegal wars, financial fraud, banking crash. Tax evasion. Courtesy of Westminster governance.
The North/South divide. Thatcher, Higher unemployment in Scotland 15%. NI 20%. Interest rates 17%. The Sermon on the Mound. The Church of Scotland assembly. ‘We the English people are generous to you Scot’s’. Thatcher taking, the equivalence of, £Billions of Oil revenues and lying about it. Kept it secret under Official Secrets Act. The McCrone Report. Cut Bank leverage from 25% worldwide, to 13%. That caused the banking crash. Sold off utilities. Privatised the Building Societies owned by the members.
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Too long a comment, apologies, but I needed to write it (just for me Ha Ha) as Malcolm Offord aka Lord Offord (as he cannot rescind his title as a Life Peer) was trying to argue that any comments or actions done by the chosen Reform UK’s candidates in Scotland for May’s elections were done in a past life….not so for all of them.
Offord’s reaction to revelations about certain candidates they, Reform UK, have picked to stand for the Scottish elections in May:
“We have brought in 80% of candidates who are not politicians, they are real people with real lives who said real things in a past life”
“This was said before she was a candidate and she wasn’t even a member of the party at this time”
“We have all made comments in the past but the problem with this modern world is everything is written down and remembered”
“We need to be more realistic about the fact real people say real things. Now she is a candidate she will be held to higher standards.”
So “This was said before she was a candidate and she wasn’t even a member of the party at this time”
In October 2025 SKY News did a report on Reform UK in Scotland.
Think , October 2025 is near the end of last year, and so included in this report was an interview with an ex Labour Councillor who defected to Reform UK last year , that individual was called Audrey Dempsey.
Why was she an ex Labour Councillor ?
Well also last year, in August 2025, it was reported that “she quit Labour after making an unsubstantiated claim about a rise in “racist attacks on white children and teachers” and she has now joined Reform”
Also it was reported that “Audrey Dempsey was suspended from Labour in April 2024 and later quit to sit as an independent after she was accused of making racist remarks”.
Now in even further evidence that exposes her unsuitability we get to read that The National newspaper has reported that:
“She, as a current Reform councillor, has announced her candidacy for a constituency that will not exist at the 2026 Holyrood election.Doh!
She is actually standing as a Reform UK candidate for Glasgow, Easterhouse & Springburn but she posted a video on 21 March this year and said that she was “proud to announce that I am standing as the Reform candidate for Glasgow Provan” whoops yet another big fat Doh !
Anyway back to the SKY News report and Ms Demspey.
So has her views changed since she was suspended by the Labour party ?
As Offord suggested that now that these candidates are members of Reform UK they ” will be held to higher standards”.
Well last year Andrey Dempsey spoke to Connor Gillies of SKY News in October 2025, in his report on Reform UK in Scotland, where she was noted as a potential candidate for Reform UK for the Scottish elections, she was already a Reform UK Coluncillor.
Anyway when Connor spoke to her , Dempsey, last year here is what she said as a member of Reform UK , as a current Reform UK Councillor – so not in a past life Lord Offord as he, Offord, cannot rescind his title as he was awarded a LIFE PEERAGE.
She said this:
“When they (migrants) arrive in the country (England First) and they were, you know, fitting in with our culture, our values and learning our way of life. That would be more than welcome”.
She was asked “What do you mean by fitting in with our culture” ?
Her response was “Well instead of coming in and trying to inflict their culture on other people here you know like Sharia Law, for instance, they’re trying to bring that here. That’s not something we celebrate”.
She was then asked “Who’s bringing that here” ?
Her response “The Asylum seekers. Some of the Asylum seekers , the legal migrants“.
Connor G then said “They’re trying to bring Sharia Law” ?
She responded yes, and then he asked her
“Where’s that happening” ?
She said “Well do not have conversations in the street” ?
He said “So Asylum seekers are trying to bring Sharia Law to the streets of Glasgow” ?
She responded “Oh absolutely , yes absolutely, you just have to take a walk through Glasgow city centre, any given day and I think the fact that probably the line of questioning you have , if you’re so shocked by this you’d be even more shocked by what you find”.
(BTW as Audrey D clearly is clueless upon this subject then I will add what an expert said about Sharia Law – “Sharia courts” are not legally binding in the UK. They only carry weight if both disputed parties *choose* to follow their judgement. It’s like a friend informally mediating a dispute”)
Back to Audrey D’s interview.
Connor asked Audrey “I’m just asking genuine questions because you know if Councillors and elected officials are going to make those statements surely it needs to be corroborated and substantiated”.
She then said “There is stacks of evidence online where these migrants are posting themselves , you know videos of them saying their coming to the land of Milk and Honey , they’re coming to take over “.
Connor then asks her “Do you believe they’re coming here to take over , in your words” ?
And then her absurd response was ” I don’t quite know what I believe at this moment”.
( Connor did a voice-over to state that “the Police have told SKY News Sharia Law is not being enforced”)….as in the Glasgow Police told him, as if the Police do not have enough to deal with without idiots like her inciting non existent problems, ones that they have not witnessed themselves , but have only seen ‘videos online’ that then form their future opinions on what is their reality.
As if we the viewers listening to and watching this interview ever thought that what she was saying was even credible, as clearly she was radicalised by watching too many wrong videos online.
Indeed she even, at the end of the interview, doubted her own words and thoughts when she said “” I don’t quite know what I believe at this moment”.
So the rigorous vetting Thomas Kerr told Connor Gillies that Reform UK would be putting their candidates through for the Scottish elections , then considered that Audrey Dempsey was 100% suitable as a future candidate….and also her words and thoughts were not said before she was a Reform UK politician, as she said the above things to SKY News when she was already a Reform UK Councillor.
That’s Offord’s pathetic excuse now blown out of the water….as expected.
But then we all know that Offord , in him making weak and implausible excuses for his candidates in Scotland, as in those who were caught out as being wrong ‘uns, was merely speaking in forked tongue as per with Reform UK.
Honestly Offord and Farage did the launch on Thursday and within 24 hours of them revealing their candidates it turns out many they have picked are duds……..so any Journalist asking what is their vetting process that Thomas Kerr said was “vigorous” as he said to Connor G in the same programme that “The vetting procedure that we put in place as a party is absolutely vigorous”.
Well it’s obvious that Reform UK’s version of “vigorous vetting” is different from what we the public would consider to be “vigorous vetting”……..the public would assume people like Dempsey, Beresford, Niven , Hameed, Holt, Ritchie and Wright would not pass the supposed “vigorous vetting”………..one wonders what other revelations upon their other candidates will be exposed ?
Lord Offord recently said that he had “lost friends over his decision to defect to Nigel Farage’s party” well after the recent revelations on some of these candidates one hopes that he , and his party, will also ‘lose potential voters’ as well.
Liz S
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