Alan Roden

Nigel Farage will make his first political visit north of the border in six years this week, causing intense excitement in the Scottish media. The Reform UK leader’s trips here rarely pass without incident, including the time he sought refuge from protesters in an Edinburgh pub or when a nearby branch of McDonald’s was asked by police not to sell milkshakes. Activists are already targeting the visit to Hamilton. Which is, of course, precisely what the media-hungry Farage wants. To date, media coverage of the Scottish parliamentary by-election campaign in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in the heart of the central belt has breathlessly predicted a Reform breakthrough, which could push Scottish Labour into third place according to several commentators.

Support for Nigel Farage's party in Scotland is surging. This is despite the fact the Scottish group has no party leader, no parliamentarians and next to no operation on the ground. On his recent trip to Glasgow, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice struggled to explain any devolved policies and even failed to remember the names of two councillors at an event set up to announce their defections. Meanwhile in Westminster internal battles have exploded in public with a bust-up between MPs Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe, while Reform voters are starting to turn against their leader. But to Scottish voters, all this doesn't appear to matter.