Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, shouted at a heckler to get a haircut and branded them jobless after his arrival at a Scots country club was interrupted on Saturday. The incident occurred as Farage unveiled his party's candidates for the Holyrood election and promoted its manifesto in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.
Farage walked on stage to a rapturous reception but was forced to pause when a long-haired student from Dundee began shouting from the audience. The activist, who later identified as a member of the Green New Rising environmental group, was quickly escorted from the room. Farage called out: 'You need a haircut, mate. Wow, go back to work. No, sorry, you haven't got a job, have you?'
The student, named Saul, said afterwards: 'As a young person in Scotland, I’m terrified of what my future looks like: an insecure job market, unaffordable housing and a spiralling climate crisis. Reform’s policy will not fix any of these. Reform want to rip up the Equalities Act, deport our neighbours and leave oil and gas workers without a transition plan as the climate crisis accelerates.'
During his speech, Farage claimed all mass religious observances should be banned after the prayer of Muslims at Trafalgar Square. When asked if that included Jewish or Catholic observances, he said: 'I’ve never seen Jewish services taking place in places of historic Christian worship or anywhere else. We have to get this right. We can’t stop individuals from praying, but mass prayer is banned, mass Muslim prayer is banned, in many Muslim countries in the Middle East itself.'
Farage also predicted Reform UK will be the official opposition at Holyrood after the May elections. He accused opponents in Scotland of having 'Offord derangement syndrome', a reference to the 'Trump derangement syndrome' attack used by some supporters of the US president. He said: 'Scottish politics up until this point has been very, very hostile to any other voice. They may go on being hostile to our voice but you know something now, they can’t stop us.'
