Last week, Stirling University’s Debate Society hosted a hustings that invited representatives from Reform UK, offering them the chance to make their case to students as to why they should vote for Reform next month.
For our last print edition before the May 7 Scottish Elections, Brig has reached out to local Reform representatives, again, to offer them the same chance as all other parties standing in Stirling, to make their case.
However , Reform UK cancelled their University debate night appearance and the party chair for Mid Scotland and Fife failed to respond to our request for an interview. So, we’ve been forced to find out for ourselves – who is standing for Reform in Stirling?
Local Hustings Missed
Rachael Wright is Reform UK’s Stirling candidate, whose local engagement has mostly been delivered via Facebook. She was scheduled to speak at Stirling’s Debating Society’s hustings alongside representatives from all other parties standing in the constituency. However, days before, she pulled out of the event, telling the society that she would be in Aberdeen. Reform UK had a press event in Aberdeen, where Richard Tice said that Reform UK would extract “every last drop” of oil from the North Sea, the same day as these hustings.
On the cancellation, the Debating Society President, Ismael Ahidar, said: “Reform were set to attend our hustings event, which I feel was a really good chance for them to try and make their case to students at the university.
“Two days before the event the representative emailed to say they were unable to make it as they had been called to Aberdeen and wouldn’t be down in time.
“They then said they were trying to get someone else to cover the event but, a day later, informed us they were unable to do so. We moved on with what was a great event regardless.”
Cyber Conspiracy Spreading
Wright shared a petition last October calling on local authorities not to turn a Scottish former private school into “migrant accommodation”. Kilgraston School in Perthshire, a former girls’ boarding school and co-ed private school, was never set to be turned into Home Office accommodation, a rumour that the local council had to dismiss.
The council’s Facebook page posted a statement, including: “If, and this is a big if at this stage, a building like that was to be used for this purpose, a Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence would almost certainly be required. Again, we’ve had no applications for this kind of licence, or enquiries about the process for gaining a licence for any other Perth and Kinross building for the purposes of housing asylum seekers.”
Online Presence
Wright’s X account, despite appearing to be for campaign purposes, is private, but her Facebook is not. Here, we saw questionable responses to comments that may explain her lack of engagement with students.
Additionally, she has liked comments from users advocating for the UK to “get our country back” and “stop the vile illegals”, which Wright responded to with: “we definitely need more common sense and to put our own first”.
Reform UK have candidates standing in all 73 constituencies and provides guidance for how to vote in all of these – but none of them explain the correct voting system for Scottish elections. They have been explaining the Single Transferable Vote method, which is for local councils. The Holyrood election will use the Additional Member System.
4th year Politics and Journalism student.
Secretary for Brig
The Herald Student Press Awards Columnist Of The Year 2024 (which sorry i’m still not over)
