Cole-Hamilton having time of his life as Lib Dems seek best-ever Holyrood result

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says he is having the time of his life in the Holyrood election – insisting that his party is “in the mix” with voters “for the first time in a long time”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton says he has knocked on “more doors than any other party leader in Scotland” in the run-up to polling day on May 7 – but in a bid to get his message across further, he has also taken part in a mix of themed photocalls.

As part of these, Mr Cole-Hamilton has sped down the River Clyde in a speedboat, played tennis with UK Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, made mocktails with peaches – to highlight the importance of the peach-coloured regional list ballot paper – and joined in with a dance class.

“I have been having the time of my life,” the Scottish Liberal Democrat said.

These visits allow him to meet “people who are passionate about what they do” while also learning about “what is not working for them at the moment”.

He is fighting his first Holyrood election campaign as leader after taking over at the helm of the party in the wake of the 2021 Scottish Parliament vote when the party won four seats.

A defection from the Tories took his party’s numbers up to five by the time Holyrood broke up for the election.

Mr Cole-Hamilton believes his party can build on the 2024 UK election results, when they won six constituencies north of the border, beating the Tories and coming within “touching distance” of the SNP – with John Swinney’s party seeing its number of MPs at Westminster fall from 48 to nine.

Speaking to the Press Association, the Scottish Liberal Democrat said: “We’re coming into this election off the back of our best general election result in 100 years, we trebled our seats in Scotland, we overtook the Tories and we came within touching distance of the SNP.”

Looking ahead to May 7, he adds he is “really excited about how we are going to do”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton believes his party can win the 10 constituency seats they are targeting and can also return an MSP in all eight of the areas on the regional list vote.

If the Lib Dems could return 18 MSPs, that would be the party’s best-ever result at Holyrood, topping the 17 MSPs elected in 1999 and 2003, when they formed a coalition with Scottish Labour.

Polls for the Holyrood election continue to point to the SNP being the largest party after next month’s ballot – but the Liberal Democrat leader adds that it is “tight amongst the other parties”.

However, he insists the Lib Dems “are in the mix in that, for the first time in a long time”, adding his party “will be a much stronger voice in the new parliament to come”.

It comes as he accepts that “most people” in Scotland are “scunnered” with politics.

With the SNP having been in power for 19 years, he says that “wherever I go people I meet on the doorsteps who have traditionally been SNP voters who are really struggling to find reasons to vote for them this time”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton adds that people “are not inspired by John Swinney, they don’t want to reward 19 years of failure with a third decade – a third decade – of SNP administration”.

While support for Reform UK is on the rise – with some polls suggesting the party could come in second – the Liberal Democrat says people “don’t need to settle for that mean-spirited world view that Nigel Farage offers”.

Instead, he argues his party offers “a better future, a brighter future”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton says: “We have attacked this campaign with relentless positivity, we have resisted the urge to get stuck into the pile-ons and scandal baiting that we have seen.

“We just want to present a positive vision for Scotland, which improves Scottish education by taking mobile phones out of classrooms and putting pupil support assistants in, which drives down people’s fuel bills with an emergency insulation programme or helping them at the petrol pump.”

Going into the election, he says the Lib Dems have “knocked more doors in the last three months than we have ever knocked as a party before”, adding: “In Edinburgh last week, in just one day we spoke to 800 people.

“That’s the quantum of effort we’re putting into it and we expect to be rewarded at the ballot box.”

Speaking about himself, Mr Cole-Hamilton added: “I think it’s fair to say I do knock more doors than any other party leader in Scotland.

“It’s almost an obsession, I get a chemical response from it now, it’s something I am just not happy unless I’m doing.”

While he is happy to speak to voters on the doorsteps, he says he no longer looks at the comment sections on his social media.

In 2024 he spoke out about seeking help in therapy for online abuse and he still believes that politics can be “brutal”.

He states: “I just don’t look at the comment sections on my social media posts, but it is brutal, it is rough.

“Politics is a blood sport, but I channel that now.

“There was a time when I was struggling with it but now I’m like ‘I’m not going to surrender the country I love to this kind of person’.

“I stand up to bullies, Lib Dems always stand up to bullies.”