As of late August, Nigel Farage’s Reform party now has representatives in local government, Westminster, the Welsh Senedd and the Scottish Parliament. The group’s only MSP is Graham Simpson, a frontline Conservative politician for almost ten years, who defected just under a fortnight ago. I caught up with him at the Reform conference – amid deafening tannoy announcements, last-minute timetable shifts and an ongoing government reshuffle – to hear more about the party’s plans for next year’s 2026 Holyrood election.

What exactly attracted Graham Simpson to Reform? ‘I saw the party as something of a blank canvas,’ he explained.

The period following his defection was ‘a bit rough’, Simpson told me, visibly uncomfortable thinking back to the event. ‘There were some pretty nasty things said abo

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