Badenoch calls Farage an ‘opportunist’ after he urges Scottish nationalists to back Reform

Nigel Farage said he believed in ‘genuine nationalists’ in Scotland who do not support the Scottish National party’s bid to rejoin the EU. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party, has accused Nigel Farage of being an opportunist who does not believe in unionism after he urged Scottish nationalists to back Reform.

Farage said earlier this week he believed “genuine nationalists” would not support the Scottish National party’s bid to rejoin the EU, and urged them to vote Reform in the Holyrood election on 7 May.