The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest the party's public meeting so far in Scotland, but avoided engaging with the press corps afterwards. In his place, newly defected member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord took on the task of field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to the party leader.
Welcoming a New Recruit
Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman during a sold-out rally of about 700 supporters in a hotel venue near Falkirk. 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, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to stand for the party in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.
Farage said he was “delighted” to greet Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.
Dodging the Press
The Reform leader spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which included him delivering a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him regarding a report into claimed discriminatory and antisemitic behaviour from his teenage years. However, Farage dodged a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event.
Questioned why Farage did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”
Challenged about whether he believed an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made towards Jewish pupils, he stated: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”
Insisting on Fitness
Offord insisted that Farage was “morally fit” to be the country's leader and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, Farage had doubled down on his remarks about pupils in Glasgow who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”
While Scotland's First Minister criticised the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader labeled them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that Farage was “drawing attention to a real concern” that people are talking about on the doorstep”.
Growing Confidence
The rally, attended by an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, showcases the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections.
While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has made substantial progress in the past year, 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 in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.
Declaring that party membership north of the border had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, the party chair, David Bull said he believed it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, putting the party in “a very strong position” in the Scottish Parliament.
Fighting Talk
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 told supporters to “man the barricades as we take on the political establishment”, cautioning that “the next five months will be tough”.
Although the party has yet to produce a distinct policy platform for Scotland, representatives vowed the party would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.
Farage himself underlined his delight at the party’s emergence as a force in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, admitting to the audience that in previous years he had been warned he “couldn't fill a small venue”.
Protests Nearby
Meanwhile, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters assembled for what have become regular weekly confrontations 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 the tactic of the far-right is to apportion the blame … to asylum seekers or migrants 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 pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.
