Reform leader Nigel Farage holds Aberdeen Press Conference

The Scotsman

Reform leader Nigel Farage holds Aberdeen Press  Conference ahead of by-election in Hamilton, Stonehouse, Aberdeen

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Rachel Emery, the Scotland's political correspondent and I'm in Aberdeen today where

00:03Nigel Farage has been visiting ahead of this week's by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and

00:08Stonehouse. This is one of his first visits to Scotland in quite some time and definitely

00:13the first in this particular election campaign. Now a lot of his speech today focused on net

00:18zero, hence the location of Aberdeen for his speech today. However, he was asked a lot

00:22about some of the stories that have been leading up to this election, particularly the ongoing

00:27feud that seems to be happening between himself and Scottish Labour leader Anna Sarwar. Now

00:32today, Nigel Farage repeated his claims that Sarwar is fueling sectarianism and is constantly

00:39bringing up race in this debate as well. That was one of the questions that he was asked

00:42about today by journalists.

00:44OK, so I can tell you this, we've not heard these sort of chants or tweets in England now

00:50for a very, very long time. And indeed the First Minister, Swinney, was the one that started

00:55using this word yesterday in a deliberate, I think, and very, very provocative way. I

01:01would remind everybody that the chairman of the party is Scottish-born but comes from parents

01:10who come from the Indian subcontinent. But we don't talk about race at all. We think everybody

01:16should be treated equally. We object very strongly to the segmentation of people into different

01:22types. And I think, to be frank, that Mr Sarwar has a record of obsessing on this issue. There

01:30was the famous speech that he gave in the Scottish Parliament saying, why are the judiciary

01:34white? Why are these leading figures in Scotland white? A most extraordinary speech given the

01:39statistics and figures here. And actually, I think that speech that he gave was sectarian

01:45in its very nature. You know, we are the South Asian community, we are going to take over

01:50the country and take over the world. We believe what he said was a form of sectarian politics

01:55and we don't like it one little bit. Thank you.

01:58Now, this is all because of this by-election that's happening later this week in Hamilton,

02:01Larkhall and Stonehouse. This was initially billed a straight fight between the SNP and

02:06the Labour Party. But as we've seen reform surge and Labour slip down the polls, we are starting

02:10to see more and more momentum behind the reform party. Now, I asked him how much she thinks he's

02:15going to do well in this election. He says it's going to be not impossible but improbable

02:19that reform will win this election. You're giving up any wide range of expectations there.

02:25Are we going to win it or have a disaster? I mean, you pay your money, you take your choice.

02:29From what I understand, there's been no proper polling done within the constituency whatsoever.

02:34We just don't know. Are we confident they're coming third? Yes. Are we confident they're

02:40coming second? Well, I don't know. But if we do, it'll be a very nice surprise. Do I realistically

02:45think we can win? Well, if we do, then that will be the biggest earthquake Scottish politics

02:55has probably ever seen. You never know anything on a low turnout election with a disenchanted

03:00electorate. I guess it's not impossible, but I think it's improbable.

03:05There were protesters outside the venue today, down at the harbour here in Aberdeen, was chanting

03:10throughout the speech, which should be heard through the windows here, in an effort to not

03:14meet the protesters on his way out. We did see Nigel Farage sneaking out the back door

03:19into a car to avoid coming across the protesters. Unlike him, as he likes to normally, we meet

03:23the public and see the limelight, of course.

03:26Hey Nigel! Love you Nigel! Scotland for reform!

03:33Now he's heading down to Hamilton, where our Deputy Political Editor David Ball is to do

03:39some more door knocking. And so throughout the day he'll be visiting more places in Scotland

03:43in the lead up to the spy election. You can follow up the politics team on the Scotsman's

03:46website and follow the tab to the politics homepage.

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