Reform's Scottish leader accuses ex-party MSP Amanda Bland of 'squatting' in Holyrood seat
Malcolm Offord says the Central Scotland list MSP has no personal mandate after quitting Reform to sit as an independent – a move that drops the party to third place at Holyrood.
Reform UK Scotland leader Malcolm Offord. · Photograph: House of Lords / Roger Harris (CC BY 3.0)
The leader of Reform UK in Scotland has accused a former party MSP of "squatting" in a seat Reform won at May's election.
Amanda Bland, a list MSP for Central Scotland and Lothians West, resigned from Reform this week to sit as an independent. Malcolm Offord said she did not have a personal mandate to stay on, because list MSPs are elected on their party's vote.
A Reform source claimed Bland had been called to a meeting about high staff turnover in her office. She denied that was why she left, saying her principles were unchanged and she could best hold the Scottish Government to account as an independent.
Her departure leaves Reform with 16 MSPs, one behind Labour's 17, meaning the party loses joint billing as the main opposition at First Minister's Questions. Offord called that irritating but said it would not derail the party.
Under Holyrood rules, if a list MSP resigns their seat it goes to the next candidate on their party's list. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Bland should probably stand down.
Offord also said some Reform MSPs had been taken aback by what he described as a hostile atmosphere at the Scottish Parliament.