Nigel Farage addressed the largest Reform UK public meeting held in Scotland to date, but avoided engaging with local journalists afterwards. Instead, newly defected member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor was left to responding to queries on claims of discriminatory behaviour and anti-Jewish sentiment linked to the party leader.
A High-Profile Defection
The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman during a packed event of about 700 supporters in a hotel venue in central Scotland. Offord, who served as a junior minister for Scotland in the previous administration and was until recently the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, announced his intention to relinquish his seat in the Lords 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 courageous and significant move”.
Avoiding Media Scrutiny
The Reform leader spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and remarks from his teenage years. But, Farage dodged a planned media briefing post-rally.
When asked why Farage did not make himself available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”
Pressed on whether he believed Farage should apologise for his alleged remarks towards Jewish pupils, he stated: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”
Defending the Leader
The peer maintained that Farage was “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. During his speech, Farage had doubled down on previous comments about pupils in Glasgow who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”
Although Scotland's First Minister condemned Farage’s original remarks as “discriminatory”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “drawing attention to a real concern” that “voters are discussing”.
Growing Confidence
The event, attended by an energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, highlights Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.
Although the SNP continues to lead in the polls, the party has gained significant ground in the past year, achieving a quarter of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. Following Scottish Labour's decline, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.
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 powerful situation” at Holyrood.
Fighting Talk
A Reform councillor, a local representative for the party, 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 next five months will be tough”.
Although the party has yet to produce a distinct policy platform for Scotland, representatives pledged Reform would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.
The leader personally expressed his pleasure at Reform's rise as a significant player in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, confessing to supporters that he was once told he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.
Local Context
Meanwhile, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters were gathering 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. Speaking previously, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that “what the far right do is to apportion the blame … to new arrivals and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.
He also made a clear distinction extremist opinions and people with “valid concerns” about strain on public services or community safety.