A Guest Post by Allan Petrie.

 

Reform UK wants you to believe they are the party of “common sense.” They tell voters that asylum seekers arriving in small boats are the greatest threat to Britain’s future, that immigration is overwhelming our services and that they alone can protect the country.

 

But peel back the curtain and you’ll find their priorities are not about protecting ordinary people at all, they are about protecting profits, particularly those tied to the arms trade.

 

Reform’s biggest donor, Christopher Harborne, is also the largest shareholder in QinetiQ, one of Britain’s leading defence technology companies. QinetiQ makes the bulk of its revenue from UK government defence contracts, money that comes directly from the taxpayer.

 

When Reform pledges to increase military spending to 3% of GDP, that isn’t just a political promise, it’s a financial windfall for the very companies tied to their backers.

 

That means every time Reform whips up fear about threats abroad or instability at home, the arms trade benefits. Every time they promise more contracts, more spending, more military expansion, the companies with ties to their donors stand to profit.

 

War and instability don’t appear out of thin air, arms deals and military interventions fuel conflicts around the globe.

 

The UK is a major exporter of weapons, often to countries where human rights abuses are rife, when bombs fall, when regimes are armed, when conflicts escalate, ordinary people flee and where do many end up? On our shores, in dinghies and small boats, risking their lives because their countries have been torn apart by violence.

 

Some of that violence has been armed, supplied, or prolonged by the very defence industries that Reform’s donor profits from, Reform screams about “illegal immigration” without ever admitting the uncomfortable truth, Britain is complicit in creating the very asylum crises they now weaponise for votes.

 

Reform’s leadership, most famously Nigel Farage, sold Brexit as the answer to immigration, they promised “taking back control” would reduce numbers, so how fid that work out?

 

Thousands of EU nationals nurses, carers, doctors, farm workers all left the country.

 

Our NHS and social care sectors were left short staffed, with services struggling to cope.

 

Immigration didn’t fall, it simply changed shape, with more asylum seekers and non-EU workers filling gaps.

 

The promise was a lie and Reform knows it, but rather than admit their project has failed, they double down demonising asylum seekers while ignoring the real consequences of their choices.

 

Reform thrives on scapegoating, they point the finger at immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, blaming them for shortages in housing, healthcare and schools. But the truth is simple public service cuts are political choices, not the fault of immigrants.

 

Who made those choices? The same kind of politicians who now lead Reform UK, they slash budgets, privatise services, and funnel money into private contracts, including defence firms with political connections, then they tell voters to blame the stranger, the asylum seeker, the refugee.

 

This isn’t patriotism, It’s profiteering, it’s about squeezing every last drop out of the taxpayer whether through NHS privatisation, defence contracts or welfare cuts, while distracting the public with fear of “the foreigner”.

 

Reform UK’s links to the arms trade aren’t just a side issue, they go to the heart of what the party represents, profit over people, war over peace, fear over solidarity.

 

Every small boat that lands on our shores is a reminder that human lives are being destroyed by conflicts the arms industry feeds, every staff shortage in the NHS is a reminder of how Brexit’s promises crumbled and every speech that blames immigrants is a reminder of how little Reform cares for the truth or for the people of this country.

 

The real choice is this, do we let them divide us and bleed our services dry for profit, or do we finally hold them accountable for the damage they have done?

 

In 2026, we cannot afford to let Reform get a foothold in Scotland, we must send them homewards by using our second vote not for the SNP as that will hand reform seats but for Liberate Scotland who will not only  keep out reform they will end the hold of Westminster over Scotland.

 

LIBERATE SCOTLAND for outcomes not incomes. Independence nothing less.