A SCOTTISH Reform UK candidate has been slammed after it was revealed she previously claimed leaving the EU had reduced the UK to a "state of disarray" despite Reform’s pro-Brexit stance.
Julie MacDougall, standing for Nigel Farage’s party in Kirkcaldy next week, warned that Brexit left the NHS “on its knees”, and also claimed the country’s exit from the EU had left Britain in a “state of disarray”.
Reform UK were originally founded as the Brexit Party in 2018 on the ideals of leaving the European Union without a deal.
MacDougall’s anti-Brexit statement came four years ago in an official application for an endorsement from the Labour Movement for Europe group, which The Courier obtained.
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MacDougall wrote in a 2022 application: "Since David Cameron held his referendum in 2016, the UK has been left in a state of disarray.
"The campaign was a sales pitch in which the goods have never been delivered but the onslaught continues to this day with a very divided nation.
"The campaign itself had many promises, but it was the promise of solving immigration issues, and the red bus with the £350m investment pledge to reform our NHS, which in my own opinion led voters to believe things would change for the better. How wrong could they be?"
She finished: "It only led to a huge divorce bill and we are still paying the price for this. Our immigration situation is worse than ever because of the Tory government's incompetence and our NHS is absolutely on its knees.
“These are only two areas I am mentioning of the failures but we all know there are so many more."
MacDougall was a Fife Labour councillor at the time, but left the party after being blocked as a candidate at the 2024 Westminster election.
Following this, she sat as an independent before defecting to Reform.
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SNP MP Stephen Gethins, who is hoping to be successful in Dundee City East, slammed Reform’s “damaging policy agenda”, following MacDougall’s comments.
Gethins said: "A hard Tory Brexit championed by Reform and now carried out by Labour HAS been devastating for jobs, the economy and public services, including our NHS.
"Every day we are paying the price of Westminster's Brexit obsession that is costing the taxpayer £250 million every day, removing rights from young people and opportunities from business.
"The best way to reject Brexit and Reform's damaging policy agenda is with Independence and both votes SNP”.
MacDougall previously claimed she quit Labour in protest at the party "parachuting" in a general election candidate based in London.
A Fife Labour source said: "This is the latest example of Reform's choice of candidates coming back to haunt them.
"The ragtag band led by millionaire Lord Offord and Nigel Farage are too chaotic to run their own election campaigns, let alone the country."
They finished: "Julie MacDougall joined Reform as a desperate last resort because she couldn’t get selected by any other party. That’s why she has a long history of expressing opinions that are the exact opposite of everything she now says she believes in.
"Now she’s part of the chaos club with dozens of former Tories. The truth is that you have no idea what you’re getting with Reform."
The comments come as Reform's Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, faced backlash earlier this week over the revelation he owns 6 houses, 5 cars and 6 boats.
Alongside this, another Scottish Reform politician was accused of “misleading the public” by linking rising sexual crimes with immigration on April 30.
Thomas Kerr accused reporters of talking “nonsense” after he attempted to say that migration was to blame for rising numbers of rapes and sexual assaults.
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A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Reform UK’s position on Brexit is clear and unchanged.
“Candidates, like many people across the country, may have held different views in the past.
“What matters is that those standing for Reform UK today support our current platform, including controlled immigration and policies that put British workers and public services first."
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