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The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest Reform UK public meeting so far in Scotland, however avoided engaging with the press corps afterwards. In his place, recently switched peer the former Conservative donor was left to responding to queries on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to the party leader.

Welcoming a New Recruit

The leader presented the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor at a sold-out rally of roughly seven hundred attendees at a hotel conference centre 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 relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to stand for the party in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.

Farage said he was “delighted” to welcome the new member. He described the switch as “a brave and historic act”.

Avoiding Media Scrutiny

The Reform leader spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which saw him launch a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him regarding a report into claimed discriminatory and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. However, 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: “That is a question for him to answer.”

Challenged about whether he believed Farage should apologise for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, 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 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 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 “racist”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “drawing attention to a real concern” that “voters are discussing”.

Growing Confidence

The event, filled with an energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who each paid £6 to attend, highlights Reform's increasing self-assurance before next May’s elections.

While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. After the collapse in support for Scottish Labour, Reform has regularly pushed it into third place 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 win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” in the Scottish Parliament.

Campaign Rhetoric

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 “man the barricades 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, speakers from the north-east vowed the party 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 in the last year, admitting to the audience that he was once told he “couldn't fill a small venue”.

Protests Nearby

Meanwhile, not far away in Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters assembled 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, First Minister John Swinney warned that “what the far right do is to apportion the blame … 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 “legitimate points” about strain on public services or community safety.