Lib Dems are the ‘antidote to Reform’, Cole-Hamilton declares in push for votes

Scottish Liberal Democrats will be the “antidote” to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in May’s Holyrood election, Alex Cole-Hamilton has declared.

The Scottish Lib Dem leader said some “scunnered” voters may be considering backing Reform in the Scottish election to “stick two fingers up to the Conservative, Labour and SNP politicians who have let them down”.

But Mr Cole-Hamilton said his Liberal Democrats are the “antidote to cynicism” and the “antidote to frustration”.

He added: “We are the antidote to Reform.”

He accused Reform leader Mr Farage of “cosying up to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump”, and insisted: “The change that Reform UK represent is bleak and miserable and self-serving.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton added that the Liberal Democrats offer voters “another way of doing things”.

While polls in Scotland currently suggest Reform could come in second place in the Holyrood election, forming the main opposition to the SNP, Mr Cole-Hamilton declared his party could be the “big winners” in the vote.

As well as targeting 10 constituencies at Holyrood – with the party looking to hold the four constituency seats it currently has and win six more – he said the regional ballot could be “key” to how Liberal Democrats “break through”.

Speaking at his party’s Scottish conference in Edinburgh, Mr Cole-Hamilton told supporters: “The next 10 weeks could be the most important in our party’s history and anyone who tells you they know what’s going to happen in May is lying to you.

“Make no mistake, the coming election is wide open.”

Insisting the Lib Dems “stand on the threshold of a huge revival”, he said they could “be the big winners in May”.

In constituency battlegrounds he vowed Liberal Democrats would beat the SNP “right across this country”, with the party targeting seats in the Highlands, in the west of Scotland, and in the capital Edinburgh.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “This May we will repaint the electoral map, turning huge swathes of Scotland away from the acid yellow of the SNP to the solid gold of the Liberal Democrats.”

Winning 10 constituencies “would be a monumental leap forward”, he said, adding there are also “absolutely massive” opportunities for the party on the second regional list vote.

Votes for the Lib Dems on this ballot “could turn a great night for our party into an unbelievable night”, he said.

The Liberal Democrat leader used his speech to set out plans to improve Scotland’s schools, saying that after 19 years of the SNP in power at Holyrood, “Scottish education just isn’t what it used to be”.

He promised Liberal Democrats would seek to change the law “to make classrooms mobile phone-free, so children can learn and teachers can teach”.

He also announced they would seek to give qualified teachers “stuck in precarious work” a way that they could “quickly gain the right to teach in secondary schools”.

Such a change, he said, would improve job prospects for teachers and “ensure pupils have the teachers and subject choice they deserve”.

This is part of a Liberal Democrat plan to “get Scottish education back to its best”, Mr Cole-Hamilton said.

To tackle Scotland’s housing problem, he said Liberal Democrats would press for “a new programme of affordable homes for rent, reserved for key workers”.

Eligibility for the new homes would be decided locally, stressing “each area has its own specific needs” but he said the policy could help provide “homes for care workers, teachers, engineers”.