Reform UK’s Kirkcaldy candidate previously warned Brexit left NHS 'on its knees'

Julie MacDougall, Reform UK’s candidate in Kirkcaldy, previously warned that Brexit had left the NHS “on its knees” and the UK in a “state of disarray,” according to a 2022 application she submitted to the Labour Movement for Europe. MacDougall — a Fife councillor who quit Labour in 2024 and joined Nigel Farage’s party last year — is contesting the Kirkcaldy seat when voters go to the polls on May 7.

Her earlier remarks are likely to raise eyebrows among some in her new party. In her 2022 application, MacDougall wrote: “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.” She continued: “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?” “It only led to a huge divorce bill and we are still paying the price for this,” she added. “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, the daughter of the late John MacDougall — an ally of Gordon Brown who served as Labour MP for Glenrothes from 2001 until his death in 2008 — left Labour to sit as an independent after she was blocked from standing at the last general election.

She has previously said she quit in protest at the party “parachuting” in a general election candidate based in London. A Fife Labour source criticised her move to Reform UK, claiming it reflected the party’s candidate problems.

“This is the latest example of Reform’s choice of candidates coming back to haunt them,” the source said, describing Reform as “the ragtag band led by millionaire Lord Offord and Nigel Farage” and alleging it was “too chaotic to run their own election campaigns, let alone the country.” MacDougall’s candidacy will be tested at the ballot box next week, with the Kirkcaldy result due after polls close on May 7.