Nigel Farage addressed the biggest Reform UK rally so far in Scotland, but declined to speak with local journalists following the event. Instead, newly defected peer the former Conservative donor took on the task of field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and anti-Jewish sentiment surrounding the party leader.
Welcoming a New Recruit
The leader presented the former Conservative peer and wealthy businessman at a sold-out rally of roughly seven hundred supporters in a hotel venue in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland in the previous administration and most recently served as treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, stated his plan to relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to become a candidate for the party in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.
Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to welcome Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a brave and historic act”.
Dodging the Press
The Reform leader spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC for questioning him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. But, the leader avoided a planned media briefing post-rally.
When asked why Farage was not available to answer mounting allegations about his past behaviour, the new recruit responded: “That is a question for him to answer.”
Challenged about whether he believed an apology was necessary for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, Offord said: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”
Insisting on Fitness
The peer maintained that the leader is “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and denied he was employing coded political messaging. While addressing supporters, Farage had doubled down on his remarks about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who are not native English speakers by posing the question to the crowd: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”
Although Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer 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”.
Growing Confidence
The event, attended by an energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who each paid £6 to attend, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.
While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, the party has gained significant ground recently, achieving a quarter of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. Following Scottish Labour's decline, Reform has regularly pushed it into third place in recent months, polling up to 22%.
Announcing that party membership north of the border had quadrupled in the past year 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” at Holyrood.
Campaign Rhetoric
A Reform councillor, a local representative for the party, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “the future PM of the UK”. He instructed the crowd to “man the barricades as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.
Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.
Farage himself expressed his pleasure at Reform's rise as a significant player in the political scene in Scotland in the last year, confessing to supporters that he was once told he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.
Local Context
As the event was taking place, not far away in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views were gathering for what have become regular weekly confrontations outside a local hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.
A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a serious local crime. In an interview, Scotland's leader warned 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”.
However, he differentiated extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about strain on public services or neighbourhood security.
