Reform’s “special announcement” didn’t go quite to plan
Nigel Farage looked delighted to announce Reform’s latest Tory defector is Scottish MSP Graham Simpson.
The tone of his special announcement switched when it was pointed out that the Scottish politician had previously faced allegations of bullying a young female staff member in the past.
At the press conference today, political correspondent at The Herald, Rebecca McCurdy, read out a stinging comment from a Tory source.
“Graham Simpson is a pathetic nasty little man who won’t be missed,” the source said.
“Just last year, he had to apologise to a young female member of staff for acting in a totally inappropriate, bullying and intimidating way towards her.
“The way he spoke to her was so bad that he was forced to sit down and say sorry in person. He’ll be more trouble than he’s worth for Reform.”
Farage, who has overseen repeated candidate scandals due to his party’s poor vetting process, brushed off the claims, stating: “Well that’s not our judgement and we don’t take people on unless we’ve done some pretty extensive research.”
He added: “We are careful, we have to be.”
The Reform leader then said: “It’s politics, you know, and people chuck abuse around the place.”
In response to the comments about him, Simpson said: “And actually that’s the kind of nastiness that I was alluding to earlier. They’ve (the Scottish Tories) come out of the traps sooner than I thought.”
Asked if the comment was accurate, Simpson said: “Absolutely untrue. And, anything internally will be dealt with internally, and, so I’ll leave it. But, you know, I certainly don’t have a problem with women.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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