Councillor who defected to Reform says he’s been branded ‘fascist and racist’

The Glasgow councillor who has been the highest-profile defector from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform UK says he has been branded a “fascist” and “racist” since switching parties.

Thomas Kerr, who led the Conservative group on Glasgow city council, said his decision last month had cost him friendships.

In an interview with Holyrood magazine, he denied claims that he only joined Reform because he had been promised the top spot on its regional list for the Scottish Parliament elections.

A number of polls have suggested Nigel Farage’s party could pick up seats in the 2026 Holyrood election.

Mr Kerr, who was first elected as a councillor in 2017 aged just 20, said he had not decided whether to run for Holyrood in 2026 and the reports saying otherwise had been “hurtful”.

A Scottish Conservative source had told the media: “He’s been promised top of the Glasgow list by Reform, which he wouldn’t have got near in our party.”

Mr Kerr said: “If I were to sit here and say to a journalist that I didn’t want to be an MSP, I’d be lying. I joined the party young; I have ambitions to go to Holyrood for this area.

“It’s no secret I have ambitions, but the idea that I did this because I was promised something is not true.”

The Glasgow councillor said he decided to leave the Conservatives as he felt the party was letting down working class people.

He said he had been “branded everything under the sun, from a fascist to a racist” since the announcement in January.

Mr Kerr added: “The day I defected I went to the branch meeting in Pollokshields, and there were 60 people there; the Tory branch meetings were six people and a dog.

“There were young men and women, all different ethnicities, and when you speak to them, they are not all Tory and Labour defectors.

“A lot of them are people who have never been involved politically.”