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The Reform UK figurehead addressed the largest Reform UK public meeting held in Scotland to date, however declined to speak with the press corps afterwards. In his place, recently switched member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to the party leader.

A High-Profile Defection

Farage introduced the former Conservative peer and wealthy businessman at a packed event of about 700 supporters in a hotel venue in central Scotland. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister under the last government and most recently served as the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, stated his plan to give up his peerage in order to stand for the party in next May’s Holyrood elections.

Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to welcome Offord to the party. He called the peer’s defection as “a brave and historic act”.

Dodging the Press

The Reform leader spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him regarding a report into alleged racist and remarks from his teenage years. But, the leader avoided a planned media briefing post-rally.

When asked why Farage did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations concerning his history, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on whether he believed an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made about Jewish students, Offord said: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”

Insisting on Fitness

The peer maintained that the leader is “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. During his speech, the leader had reiterated on previous comments about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”

Although the first minister, John Swinney condemned the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader called them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “drawing attention to a real concern” that people are talking about on the doorstep”.

A Party on the Rise

The rally, filled with an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, highlights the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections.

While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, the party has gained significant ground recently, achieving a quarter of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. After the collapse in support for Scottish Labour, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, polling up to 22%.

Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland had quadrupled over the last twelve months to 12,000 members, a senior party official stated his belief it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a very strong position” in the Scottish Parliament.

Campaign Rhetoric

A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he referred to the leader as “the future PM of the UK”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we take on the political establishment”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, representatives pledged Reform would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.

The leader personally underlined his delight at the party’s emergence as a force in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, confessing to supporters that in previous years he had been warned he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.

Local Context

As the event was taking place, not far away in Falkirk town centre, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.

A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a serious local crime. In an interview, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to assign responsibility … to new arrivals and I think that is the root of the poison”.

He also made a clear distinction between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.