🔗 Share this article

Nigel Farage spoke to the largest the party's public meeting held in Scotland to date, however declined to speak with local journalists following the event. In his place, newly defected peer the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to Farage.

Welcoming a New Recruit

Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor at a packed event of about 700 attendees at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. The businessman, who worked as a Scotland Office minister under the last government and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to stand for Reform UK in next May’s Holyrood elections.

The leader stated he was “delighted” to welcome Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.

Avoiding Media Scrutiny

Farage spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him regarding a report into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. However, the leader avoided the expected press huddle after Saturday’s event.

Questioned why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to address growing claims concerning his history, the new recruit responded: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on if he thought Farage should apologise for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, Offord said: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”

Defending the Leader

The peer maintained that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on previous comments about pupils in Glasgow who are not native English speakers by posing the question to the crowd: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

While the first minister, John Swinney condemned the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “toxic and divisive”, the defector argued that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that people are talking about on the doorstep”.

A Party on the Rise

The rally, attended by an lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers who each paid £6 to attend, showcases the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections.

While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, the party has made substantial progress recently, achieving a quarter of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. Following Scottish Labour's decline, Reform has regularly pushed it into third place in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.

Announcing that Reform UK membership in Scotland had increased fourfold in the past year 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.

Campaign Rhetoric

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, prompted a roar of approval as he described Farage as “the future PM of the UK”. He instructed the crowd to “man the barricades as we take on the political establishment”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, representatives vowed the party would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.

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 in previous years he had been warned he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.

Protests Nearby

As the event was taking place, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for what have become regular weekly confrontations near a hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.

A group coordinating protests stated they were motivated 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 asylum seekers or migrants and I think that is the root of the poison”.

However, he differentiated extremist opinions and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or community safety.