The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the largest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, however avoided engaging with the press corps afterwards. Instead, recently switched member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism surrounding Farage.
A High-Profile Defection
Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor at a sold-out rally of about 700 supporters in a hotel venue in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked as a Scotland Office minister in the previous administration and most recently served as the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in next May’s Holyrood elections.
Farage said he was “delighted” to greet Offord to the party. He called the peer’s defection as “a brave and historic act”.
Avoiding Media Scrutiny
Farage spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC for questioning him about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and remarks as a youth. However, Farage dodged a planned media briefing post-rally.
When asked why Farage was not available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, Offord said: “That is a question for him to answer.”
Challenged about whether he believed an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made towards Jewish pupils, he stated: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”
Defending the Leader
Offord insisted that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, Farage had doubled down on previous comments about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who are not native English speakers by posing the question to the crowd: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”
Although the first minister, John Swinney criticised the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and Keir Starmer called them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that Farage was “drawing attention to a real concern” that people are talking about on the doorstep”.
A Party on the Rise
The event, filled with an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, highlights Reform's increasing self-assurance before next May’s elections.
While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has gained significant ground in the past year, securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. Following Scottish Labour's decline, 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, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood.
Campaign Rhetoric
Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.
Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east vowed the party would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.
The leader personally expressed his pleasure at the party’s emergence as a force in the political scene in Scotland over the past 12 months, admitting to the audience that he was once told he “couldn't fill a small venue”.
Protests Nearby
Meanwhile, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.
A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to assign responsibility … to asylum seekers or migrants and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.
He also made a clear distinction between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about strain on public services or community safety.
