Nigel Farage's Reform UK continues to outspend rivals in online by-election battle

Nigel Farage’s party has heavily backed its contentious online campaign to seize the seat formerly held by the late Christine McKelvie, spending up to £20,000 on digital ads across Facebook and Instagram.

While no other party has come close to matching Reform’s outlay on Meta ads, Scottish Labour has focused its efforts elsewhere, spending up to £18,000 on YouTube and Google ads.

Since Reform’s contentious ad began running on Meta’s platforms on 12 May, the party’s spending on it has reached between £15,000 and £20,000, up from an estimated £9,000 to £10,000 a week ago.

For that outlay, its message attacking Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, which targets voters in Hamilton and Larkhall, has received between 800,000 and 900,000 impressions.

The ad in question, which claims Mr Sarwar will “prioritise the Pakistani community,” has been the subject of cross-party condemnation, with Scottish Labour and the SNP making formal complaints to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, about the video. Both have called it racist.

Kate Dommet, a professor in digital politics at the University of Sheffield, told The Scotsman that Reform’s activities on Facebook were not surprising, pointing out that compared to its electoral rivals, it lacked traditional campaign infrastructure.

Compared to the other mainstream Scottish political parties, the SNP has spent the most on Meta ads ahead of Thursday's by-election, having ramped up its digital campaign in recent days.

However, the overall figure still lags behind that incurred by Mr Farage’s party. According to the Meta ad library, the party ran 15 ads throughout May promoting its candidate, Katy Loudon, 13 of which went live last Friday. Its total outlay stands at around £4,700 to £6,000.

By contrast, a Scottish Conservative Meta ad campaign promoting its candidate, Richard Nelson, has been backed by a spend of just £100 to £199, according to the site. The ad, which has run across both Facebook and Instagram, has garnered an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 impressions.

Scottish Labour has not run any political ads on Meta dedicated to the Hamilton by-election, instead spending between £1,500 and £1,900 on two other adverts - one focused on the SNP’s record on the NHS, the other on a West Dunbartonshire Council by-election that was won by the SNP, with Reform pipping Scottish Labour to second.

The Scottish Greens have spent less than £300 on Meta ads this month, although none of them specifically focused on the by-election, while the Scottish Liberal Democrats have not run any ads on Meta since July 2024.

The picture is decidedly different when it comes to the parties’ use of Google ads, which take the form of sponsored links on search engines and advertisements running on YouTube.

Scottish Labour launched 67 such ads throughout May, spending around £14,700 to £18,100, according to the Google ads transparency centre. Its two most recent video ads, which warn that a vote for Reform helps the SNP, cost the party between £2,000 and £3,000, and were shown hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

The SNP has run three YouTube ads promoting Ms Loudon’s candidacy at an overall cost of between £2,750 and £3,800. Neither Reform nor any of the other parties contesting the by-election spent on Google ads.

Mr Farage is expected to visit Aberdeen and Hamilton today as the by-election campaign enters its final days.

First Minister John Swinney said the Reform leader “doesn’t care about Scotland”, adding: “He poses a threat to our values and must be stopped, and only the SNP can do that. In this by-election, the SNP is the only party investing in Scotland’s future, delivering for families and confronting Farage.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the by election is “a chance to call time on SNP failure and chart a new direction for the whole of Scotland”.

She added: “Ignore the desperate spin of Reform and the SNP – this by-election is a direct fight between Scottish Labour and the SNP. We have three days to put this failing SNP government on notice and start the journey towards a better future for Scotland.”

Elsewhere, Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said he wanted to see the SNP out of power at next year’s Holyrood election for the “collective good of society”.

Speaking to Holyrood magazine, the former journalist insisted he would “never, ever work with the SNP” – but said it would be “silly to say no” to potential deals with either Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

“Despite John Swinney having a spring in his step and this sudden belief that he’s going to hang about for a decade, we need to get them out for the collective good of society, we need to get the SNP out of power,” Mr Findlay said.

He criticised the SNP’s handling of government finances, accusing the party of “gargantuan” waste.

He said: “The mis-spending in Scotland is utterly ridiculous and I think any serious political party, any credible government, will be able to identify that and do something about it.

“If you gave me 10 minutes in St Andrew’s House, in the filing cabinets, I’d find tens of millions of pounds worth of savings.”