Our economy has been burdened by high taxation, high inflation, over-regulation and grossly high energy prices.

Full statement

Reform’s policies address all of these. None of the other parties has the answer with Labour proposing even more state interference in our affairs.

Reform UK will raise the income tax-free allowance from £12,570 to £20,000 to help the lower paid, wean up to two million people off benefits and into work, invigorate the care sector, hospitality, tourism and farming which rely on lower paid jobs, and show young people the value of hard work. Putting money into people’s pockets will stimulate the economy. Big government is a big problem.

We can’t afford to pay public employees properly nor adequately fund local authorities, despite the highest taxation in 50 years. High energy prices because of the Net Zero policy affect all areas of the economy and household budgets.

The SNP and Conservatives are unfit to govern and are in disarray. Labour’s policies would fan the flames of economic decline. It is time to change politics for good. Please vote for me and Reform UK.

Credentials

My first job was in my father’s shop in Main Street Rutherglen while studying to be an architect at Strathclyde University. My first lesson was that the customer always comes first.

When I married, I bought a house in Uddingston but during the 1970s energy crisis interest rates soared to 15% and I couldn’t afford the mortgage despite having two jobs. Luckily, I got a job at Cumbernauld Development Corporation with a key worker council house which I later bought. This gave me equity to buy into the architectural practice in which Charles Rennie Mackintosh used to work.

My first project back in Glasgow was Parkhead Forge Shopping Centre and then the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank. As managing director from 1994 to 2008, the practice grew from 40 people in Glasgow to over 300 in five UK and international offices. We delivered schools for 75,000 children. When designing hospitals I studied healthcare systems in Canada, France and Japan, learning that the NHS way is not the only way.

I designed offices for the British National Oil Corporation in Glasgow after this state energy company was set up in 1975. It was a white elephant by 1982, proving that businesses run by politicians and civil servants inevitably fail, as we would find out if Labour or the SNP nationalised the energy industry now.

I was proud of the energy efficiency of our buildings, the Scottish Natural Heritage HQ in Inverness winning the most sustainable UK office building of the year award. Wind and solar power did not make the business case and at Forth Valley Royal Hospital we rejected biofuels as very inefficient and expensive – they actually produce more CO2 emissions than burning gas. After I retired I considered whether renewables were also unfit for purpose at a national scale. They were, and I published my conclusions in a 2023 book – Climate Change for Young People: The Antidote to Eco-anxiety.