Scottish Liberal Democrats are the “most influential group” at Holyrood, their leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has claimed.

While the Liberal Democrats are the smallest group of the six parties represented in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Cole-Hamilton told his party’s conference that they had influence beyond their numbers.

Speaking at the conference in Brighton, he hailed the party as being an “antidote” to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

“We may never match the crypto in their bank accounts, but they’ll never match us on the doors,” Mr Cole-Hamilton said.

Hitting out at Reform – which won 17 seats in the Scottish Parliament election in May – the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader insisted his party would “always have an advantage over those darker forces”.

He said that was because “Reform cares only for itself, while we care about people”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton added: “That’s why the world needs liberals, whether you live in Dover or in Dundee.”

His comments came as he told party supporters that the Lib Dems are “now the most influential group in that Parliament because the SNP know they will have to fight to win us over on every vote”.

With John Swinney’s SNP without a majority in Holyrood, Mr Cole-Hamilton added that the price for his MSPs’ support in votes “will be steep”.

We work with other parties when it matters, but we don’t shy away from holding their feet to the fire either

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton

He told the conference: “We will demand an agenda that is open, compassionate, internationalist, community-focused, and environmentally sustainable.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton also hailed the Lib Dems’ record in working with others in the Scottish Parliament, saying they won concessions worth “hundreds of millions of pounds” from the Scottish Government in last year’s budget.

This had been achieved because Lib Dems “dial down political rhetoric and come to the negotiating table with pragmatic solutions”, he added.

Mr Cole-Hamilton continued: “We work with other parties when it matters, but we don’t shy away from holding their feet to the fire either.

“Because one lesson we have all learned in recent years is that the public want grown-up politics.”