During their party conference, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats told The Herald he would not rule out MPs running for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026 as he said he does not criticise the SNP's Stephen Flynn for putting himself forward for Holyrood. 

However, Mr Cole-Hamilton said no MP in his party has expressed an interest in running whilst serving as a member of the UK parliament. 

It is understood though that Liberal Democrat Aberdeenshire councillors are considering throwing their hat in the ring for MSP candidacy ahead of the Holyrood elections as the party adds North-East to their expanded list of 12-13 target seats. 

During their party conference in Perth, Mr Cole-Hamilton said the General Election and a recent council by-election has led his party to “massively increase” target seats. 

In an exclusive interview with The Herald during the conference, Mr Cole-Hamilton said dual mandates are an example of the ‘relevancy issue’ arising in the SNP from no longer being the third largest party in Westminster. This position is now held by the Liberal Democrats who have 72 MPs against the SNP’s 9 Westminster parliamentarians, following this year’s General Election. 

Mr Cole-Hamilton told The Herald: “Dual mandates actually speak to the problem in the SNP right now. It says a lot about the fact that they are scrabbling to get here because they don’t feel like they are relevant any more in Westminster.”

However, the Scottish Lib Dem leader said: “I would stop short of ruling them out completely. We’ve had Lib Dem MPs who have been MSPs at the same time particularly in the early days of the Scottish Parliament. I think ultimately, the final judgment of that should be with the constituents.

“If they are still doing their job, if they are still holding constituency surgeries, if they are readily available at the end of the phone for a constituent in trouble then I’m not going to judge. If they can make it work then that’s on them.” 

Mr Cole-Hamilton also said there were “quite a few circumstances” where it is right to uphold the right of parliamentarians to have a second job - such as those working on the frontline of the NHS. 

Asked about Flynn’s decision to run to be an MSP candidate, Mr Cole-Hamilton said it was up to him, however, his move showed a “blood-soaked game of musical chairs” from the SNP. 

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn announced on Monday that he intends to stand in the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.

The Aberdeen South and North Kincardine seat is already held by SNP MSP Audrey Nicol, who Mr Flynn will have to compete against.

“I can criticise Stephen Flynn on a range of issues and that’s where I prefer to do my politics”, Mr Cole-Hamilton added.

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The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader also stressed the successes of his party at the recent council by-election victory in Colinton and Fairmilehead - an Edinburgh ward the party has never won. 

“We overtook all of the other parties by a country mile,” said Mr Cole-Hamilton, “When you get that belief from people that we could win, they come to you in droves.” 

Mr Cole-Hamilton said this and the result of the General Election -  where across the UK the Liberal Democrats managed to pick up 72 seats - has made his party reconsider their strategy ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026. 

Speaking at the conference, Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “Because of our recent successes we are massively increasing our number of target seats and so this is a launchpad for that.”

“We are rejigging our targeting strategy and actually escalating Edinburgh Pentlands as a target seat for Holyrood.” 

Asked if the party has a chance of winning this seat, Mr Cole- Hamilton said: “I think after yesterday, we certainly do.

“We are fighting a bullish campaign already for 2026. We have already identified upwards of a dozen parliamentary constituencies that we are going to field top flight candidates and put loads of resources behind.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton was confident in increasing MSPs at the Holyrood election, adding: “All of the polls since the General Election and before show us doubling and at times trebling our hold.” 

“My policy is if you are represented by a Lib Dem MP I want you to be represented by a Lib Dem MSP. That equates to 12-13 constituencies we will be targeting. We’ve got reason to be cheerful” 

Asked about membership numbers, Mr Cole-Hamilton said “they are definitely increasing” however, he was unable to state how many members the Scottish Liberal Democrats have at the moment.  It is understood there were around 300 sign ups for their conference. 

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “We certainly got a massive surge in the General Election, we went up by 10% but it’s not a metric I keep an eye on. Across the UK, there are around 60-70,000 members.” 

During his leader's speech to party members, Mr Cole-Hamilton said the SNP minority government would have to "move mountains" to persuade the Scottish Liberal Democrats to back the budget which will be announced on December 4. 

Mr Cole-Hamilton also used his leader's speech as a rallying cry for the 2026 Holyrood elections as he set his sights on overtaking the Scottish Conservatives. 

After the party increased its number of Scottish MPs to six in the general election, meaning it has more representatives from north of the border than the Tories, he said they could “beat them at Holyrood too”.

The Liberal Democrats, who currently have 5 MSPs, have never won more MSPs than the Conservatives in the 25 years of devolution, but the Scottish leader told his party conference in Perth: “We overtook the Scottish Tories at the general election.

“Why stop there. Let’s beat them at Holyrood too.”

A local council election victory for the Liberal Democrats in Strathallan in the “Conservative heartland of rural Perthshire” shows the party has “parked our tanks firmly on the lawn of the Scottish Conservative party”, Mr Cole-Hamilton added.