Reform UK has suspended one of its Scottish candidates after it emerged he had been struck off as a company director, and the party faces growing attacks for fielding candidates making Islamophobic remarks.<\/p>\n
Reform confirmed on Friday morning it had suspended Stuart Niven, its candidate for Dundee City West, after the Herald<\/a> revealed he had been struck off after diverting tens of thousands of pounds of Covid grants into his personal account.<\/p>\n Several hours after that admission, claims within Reform\u2019s Scottish manifesto that it could save billions of pounds in Holyrood spending were dismissed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, which described many of its pledges as \u201cnot fiscally credible\u201d and \u201cunserious at best\u201d.<\/p>\n Reform had faced a succession of attacks from across the political spectrum about the conduct of several candidates only hours after Nigel Farage unveiled the 73 Reform UK<\/a> hopefuls standing for May\u2019s Scottish parliament election.<\/p>\n Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the disclosures in several newspapers about their \u201cdivisive tweets\u201d raised challenging questions about the party\u2019s screening process, which Farage earlier this year claimed was now far more rigorous than before.<\/p>\n After Farage\u2019s speech on Thursday, it emerged<\/a> that Reform\u2019s candidate for Fife North East, Linda Holt, had described Humza Yousaf, the UK\u2019s first Muslim first minister, as \u201cnot British\u201d and a \u201cgrandstanding Islamist moron\u201d in social media posts.<\/p>\n Reform\u2019s candidate for Stirling, Rachael Wright, shared a petition that wrongly claimed a former private school in Perthshire was being \u201cturned into migrant accommodation\u201d. The school\u2019s owners said that was \u201cwholly unfounded\u201d, but Reform asserted that the denial was a result of its intervention.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Senga Beresford, its candidate for Galloway and West Dumfries, endorsed social media posts by Tommy Robinson and Britain First, including tweets calling for mass deportations and a ban on burqas.<\/p>\n Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour. Photograph: Ken Jack\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Sarwar described Malcolm Offord, Reform\u2019s Scottish leader, as \u201cspineless\u201d for defending their remarks. Offord said they may have been intemperate but were \u201creal\u201d, and made before they became party candidates.<\/p>\n