Could Reform surge in Scotland?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory
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.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:06.2 | I'm Manvien Rana. |
| 0:11.1 | Okay, folks, in a few minutes' time, the train will be arriving into Motherwell. |
| 0:19.4 | For the last of our reports, ahead of the local elections, we've arrived in Scotland. |
| 0:26.4 | There is deprivation in this constituency. There's no doubt about that. People feel that they haven't |
| 0:31.6 | been listened to. People want good, well-paid jobs as they had when the steelworks was here. |
| 0:39.6 | Motherwell is a town that has seen better days. |
| 0:43.8 | There are still some beautiful old buildings in the centre, a grand old library, a Victorian |
| 0:49.2 | town hall that's being converted into flats, and some stately villas that used to house the rich owners of the steelworks |
| 0:56.9 | that made Motherwell famous. This used to be known as Steelopolis. Just 13 miles from Glasgow, |
| 1:06.1 | this was also a historic Labour stronghold. But now, as people prepare to cast their votes in the |
| 1:13.1 | Holyrood elections on Thursday, allegiances are changing. How would you normally vote? |
| 1:20.2 | Labor. I would normally vote Labour. And what's made you change your mind? Why would you not |
| 1:25.9 | vote Labour now? Because they're almost like the Conservatives now |
| 1:29.6 | I would say |
| 1:30.3 | and I want to be as far from that as possible |
| 1:32.9 | somebody needs to come in and actually do something |
| 1:35.2 | because this is a disaster |
| 1:36.9 | like people can't afford anything |
| 1:39.5 | like the price of petrol as well |
| 1:41.2 | it was crazy |
| 1:42.6 | I think they're focusing on the rang |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.