Reform UK's deputy leader has said they will back Anas Sarwar to be the next first minister to stop the SNP from forming the next Scottish Government. 

Richard Tice told the Telegraph he and his party's MSPs could act as “kingmakers” following the 2026 vote.

He said: “Anything is preferable to the SNP”.

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Recent opinion polls have put support for Reform UK in double figures, with the Nigel Farage-led party potentially on course to be the fourth largest group at Holyrood.

Last week, one survey suggested they could win as many as 12 seats.

Mr Tice, the MP for Boston and Skegness, said: “Our ambition is we see it being quite possible that we end up being the kingmakers in the next Holyrood government,” he told the Telegraph.

 

 

“From a standing start, give or take at the beginning of this year in Scottish terms, that is a pretty significant and quite achievable observation.

“It’s quite possible that we poll as the third largest party in terms of the number of votes and seats.”

Mr Tice told the paper the key message he wanted to convey at the conference was that “net zero is killing our jobs, killing our industries, killing our communities, and killing our economy – and that’s ever more true in Scotland”.

He said the debate over net zero over the coming years would be “really ugly” and “Brexit on stilts.".

Allan Faulds from Ballot Box Scotland said Reform were picking off votes from all parties, not just the Tories. 

He told The Herald: "It feels like the genie is finally out of the bottle for Reform in Scotland, we're seeing polling and by-election figures that are starting to look a lot like the rise of Ukip in England a decade ago, which was never replicated in Scotland.

"It's easy to assume that Reform growth is all at the Conservatives' expense but actually it's Labour who have been ticking downwards in the polls in the past few months.

"On the Holyrood list vote for example, Labour peaked at 31% in June, now they are on 25%; Reform has gone from maybe 3%  — allowing for some polls still not asking back then — to nearly 11%.

"That's having an impact on the expected composition of Holyrood for sure; there was a pretty long period there where I was projecting a majority for the three mainstream Pro-Union parties, or at some points for a 'traffic light' option, likely informally, for Labour and Lib Dems and Greens.

"My current projection from the average though is 62 for the traditional pro-union parties versus 54 for the pro-indy bloc, which would make the 13 Reform MSPs essential for a Sarwar Government's long term existence.

"So if this kind of polling holds, no guarantee in politics, of course, it could be a messy next term."

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Earlier this week, Mr Sarwar was asked about who he would work with after the 2026 vote.

He told the Ponsonby and Massie podcast his party aims to win the election and form a minority government.

“If you’re asking me on an issue by issue basis whether we would seek to find consensus in our Parliament to get things done, of course we would. That’s what our Parliament was designed to do.”

However, he said parties of the left need to learn a “fundamental lesson” around why voters are leaving them for parties like Reform, saying they must address the root cause rather than the symptoms.

While around 250 of Reform's supporters will gather in Perth's Royal George Hotel on Saturday, Mr Farage is expected to stay away.

Previously, Mr Tice claimed that Mr Farage’s “safety and security” would be at risk if he visited north of the Border.

In 2013, while Ukip leader, he faced protests in both Aberdeen and Edinburgh and was forced to leave a pub in the Scottish capital under police escort.

 

Perth Against Racism are planning to protest outside the conference venue.

A spokesperson told the Courier the rally will feature musicians, poets, human rights campaigners, and trade unionists opposed.