Could Reform surge in Scotland?
5/5/202636 min
This week Scottish voters will head to the polls for the Holyrood parliamentary elections. To understand what's on people's minds, we visited Motherwell - a town where, for decades, Labour used to dominate. This year Labour appear to be haemorrhaging support across Scotland and may even fall to third place. And an unlikely party is emerging from the fallout.
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Guests:
- Ross Thomson, editor, Wishaw Press
- Richard Bolton, community development officer, Forgewood Housing Cooperative
- Paul Murphy, corporate services office, Forgewood Housing Cooperative
- Justin Parkes, industrial history curator, North Lanarkshire Council Museums
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producers: Taryn Siegel
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Further listening: Is Labour facing a bloodbath in Wales?
Photo: Getty Images.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsManveen Rana· Host0:00
[gentle music] From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Manveen Rana.
Richard Bolton· Guest0:07
[train whirring] Okay, folks, in a few minutes' time, the train will be arriving into Motherwell.
Manveen Rana· Host0:18
For the last of our reports ahead of the local elections, we've arrived in Scotland.
Ross Thomson· Guest0:25
There is deprivation in this constituency. There's no doubt about that. People feel that they haven't been listened to. People want good, well-paid jobs as they had when the steelworks was here.
Manveen Rana· Host0:38
Motherwell is a town that has seen better days. There are still some beautiful old buildings in the center, a grand old library, a Victorian town hall that's being converted into flats, and some stately villas that used to house the rich owners of the steelworks that made Motherwell famous. This used to be known as Steelopolis. Just 13 miles from Glasgow, this was also a historic Labour stronghold. But now, as people prepare to cast their votes in the Holyrood elections on Thursday, allegiances are changing. How would you normally vote?
Speaker 31:19
Uh, Labour. I would normally vote Labour.
Manveen Rana· Host1:22
And what's made you change your mind? Wh- why would you not vote Labour now?
Speaker 31:26
Because they're almost like the Conservatives now, I