STUC president Richard Hardy welcomed delegates to Dundee today with a warning that the far-right “enemy is at the gate” at the Holyrood elections.

Mr Hardy, who is also Prospect’s national secretary for Scotland, made his address amid consistent polling suggesting that Reform could win over a dozen MSPs next month.

He told Congress: “We are just a fortnight away from the Holyrood elections with a very real chance of an electoral breakthrough for Reform, Britain’s homegrown version of right-wing populism with its invidious concoction of anti-migrant, anti-net zero and anti-equality snake oil. 

“It really does feel, Congress, like the enemy is at the gate.”

Putting the blame firmly at the door of “the caution and banality in our elected politicians,” he continued: “Parties of the centre-left, the centre and the right have rushed to dress themselves in the clothes of the populists, talking tough on immigration and the welfare state and ignoring the real issues faced by our members.

“Instead of bold, ambitious plans to address the cost-of-living crisis, the lack of affordable homes, what we have seen is an insipid, uninspiring campaign.

“This lack of ambition from politicians is why the trade union movement remains so vital to building a better society.”

Paying tribute to the work of trades councils, such as Perth and Falkirk working alongside communities to counter far-right anti-migrant campaigns, he said: “We are the ones fighting for a different and more radical approach on tax policy.

“We are the ones seeking to rebalance ownership of the means of production.”

In closing, he told comrades: “The task before us is huge, but then so is our great movement.

“Let us keep changing the world. A better world is possible, and the fight goes on.”