{"id":807580,"date":"2026-10-19T13:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807580\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:16:10","slug":"reform-msp-amanda-bland-resigns-to-sit-as-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807580\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform MSP Amanda Bland resigns to sit as independent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">MSP Amanda Bland has quit Reform UK Scotland to sit as an independent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The resignation relegates the party to the third-largest group at Holyrood, with one member fewer than Labour. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A Reform UK source told BBC Scotland News that Bland was &#8220;very difficult to work with&#8221; and had been called to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a high turnover of staff in her office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bland, who represents Central Scotland and Lothians West as a list MSP, is yet to comment. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A Reform spokesperson said: &#8220;Amanda Bland should reflect on her reasons for choosing to isolate herself from that team of capable individuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It is incumbent on her to resign as a regional MSP for Central Scotland and Lothians West and allow her constituents to be represented by the next Reform candidate on that list.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Under Holyrood&#8217;s rules, a list MSP would be replaced by the their party&#8217;s next candidate at the last election if they resigned. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bland, a former primary school teacher and police officer, was among 17 Reform candidates to be returned to the Scottish Parliament in May as the party made its electoral breakthrough north of the border. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The party finished in joint second with Labour, behind the SNP on 58 seats. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MSP Amanda Bland has quit Reform UK Scotland to sit as an independent. The resignation relegates the party&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-807580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}