REFORM UK’s gains in last week’s local elections south of the border are “good news” for the SNP and bad for Scottish Tories and Labour ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections, according to polling sage Professor Sir John Curtice.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland today, the Strathclyde University psephologist argued that the electoral success of Nigel Farage’s party, which gained 600 seats and control of 10 councils in England last week, would cost Labour and the Tories north of the border, further securing the SNP’s position as the biggest party.

He told the programme there was “no reason to disbelieve” opinion polls predicting Reform were on course to win as many as a dozen seats in Holyrood next May, adding: “I think the message from down south on Thursday is bad news for Anas Sarwar. It’s bad news for the Scottish Conservatives.

“And it is good news for John Swinney, not because it indicates that the SNP are going to ride high in the polls.

“It’s simply that he probably doesn’t have to do an awful lot better than the SNP did last summer — but that, given the way the Holyrood electoral system works, probably means that the SNP would pick up the vast bulk of the first-past-the-post seats.

“That would not be sufficient to give the SNP a majority or anything like it, but certainly would ensure the SNP is still the dominant party in the next Scottish Parliament.”

Such a result would likely secure a historic fourth term in power for the SNP.

But ending on a characteristic note of caution, Professor Curtice noted there was still “a long time to go” until the election.