The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the largest the party's rally held in Scotland to date, however avoided engaging with the press corps following the event. In his place, recently switched member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor took on the task of field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to the party leader.
A High-Profile Defection
Farage introduced the former Conservative peer and wealthy businessman at a sold-out rally of about 700 attendees in a hotel venue near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister in the previous administration and most recently served as the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, stated his plan to relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to stand 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”.
Dodging the Press
The Reform leader spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which included him delivering a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him regarding a report into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. But, the leader avoided the expected press huddle after Saturday’s event.
Questioned why his new party’s leader was not available to address growing claims concerning his history, 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.”
Insisting on Fitness
The peer maintained that the leader is “ethically suitable” to be prime minister and denied he was employing coded political messaging. During his speech, the leader had reiterated on his remarks about pupils in Glasgow who speak English as a second language by asking the rally: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”
While the first minister, John Swinney criticised Farage’s original remarks 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 energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, showcases the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections.
Although the Scottish National Party remains ahead, 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 lately, with support reaching over a fifth.
Announcing that party membership north of the border had quadrupled over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, putting the party in “a very strong position” in the Scottish Parliament.
Fighting Talk
A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, prompted a roar of approval as he referred to the leader as “the future PM of the UK”. 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 “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.
Farage himself underlined his delight 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, not far away in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.
The organisers of the demonstrations said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, 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 source of a harmful narrative”.
He also made a clear distinction extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.
