Nigel Farage is the “midwife” of Holyrood’s current pro-independence majority, polling expert Sir John Curtice has told an Edinburgh Book Festival audience.

The professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde spoke about the recent Scottish Parliament elections in conversation with political adviser Liz Lloyd on Friday evening.

Scotland was “not immune” from the rise of Mr Farage’s Reform UK party at the Holyrood elections in May, according to Sir John.

He said Mr Farage’s party split the unionist vote at the election, leading to both Labour’s Westminster win in 2024 and the pro-independence majority at Holyrood in May.

“Nigel Farage is basically the midwife of Keir Starmer’s majority,” Sir John said.

“He is also the midwife of the very large pro-independence group that now sits in the Holyrood Parliament.”

Speaking in more depth about the election results in May, Sir John said a lot of what happened is “not unique to Scotland”.

“While the electorate in Scotland held the SNP to account, they also held the Labour Party to account,” he said.

“Scotland rejected Labour in the same way as Wales rejected Labour in the same way that England rejected Labour, which is why the Parliamentary Labour Party then rejected Keir Starmer once it was clear that Andy Burnham was capable of being his successor.”

Ms Lloyd, the former strategic adviser and chief of staff to former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, later said a lack of resources is holding opposition parties back in Scotland.

“What’s holding some of the opposition parties back from ever having an impact is they don’t have the means to think about, to research, or to come up with the ideas for what they want to do,” Ms Lloyd said.

“They’re broke and they’ve got no resources, so it’s very hard to engage with them seriously on policy because they can’t contribute in the same way that the (SNP) government can – they have a tendency to just revert to, ‘well, we’re opposition, so we’ll oppose’.”

Speaking later about sufficient talent in Holyrood, Ms Lloyd said Scottish opposition parties do not have the proper resources they need to function properly.

“I see talent, I see the resources, I see the ability to do it,” she said.

“(But) I see an opposition that is actually where I think the problem lies.

“I don’t think they are equipped to properly fulfil both opposition and playing their part in sort of consensual cross-party politics that would help in the competency and in the better legislation.”

She added: “I don’t think they have the mechanics, the resources, the means to do it.”