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The Reform UK figurehead addressed the largest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, but declined to speak with local journalists following the event. In his place, recently switched member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to Farage.

Welcoming a New Recruit

Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman during a packed event of roughly seven hundred attendees at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a junior minister for Scotland in the previous administration and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, stated his plan to give up his peerage 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 described the switch as “a brave and historic act”.

Dodging the Press

Farage spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which included him delivering a fierce criticism of the broadcaster for questioning him about an investigation into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. However, Farage dodged 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, Offord said: “That is a question for him to answer.”

Challenged about if he thought an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made towards Jewish pupils, Offord said: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”

Insisting on Fitness

Offord insisted that the leader is “morally fit” to be the country's leader and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on his remarks 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?”

Although Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer called them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “highlighting a factual issue that people are talking about on the doorstep”.

A Party on the Rise

The rally, 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, Reform UK has made substantial progress recently, securing 26% of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. Following Scottish Labour's decline, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.

Announcing that party membership north of the border had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, 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.

Fighting Talk

A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, prompted a roar of approval as he referred to the leader as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He instructed the crowd to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Despite not yet publishing 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”.

Farage himself underlined his delight at the party’s emergence as a force in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, confessing to supporters that he was once told he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.

Local Context

Meanwhile, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters were gathering for what have become regular weekly confrontations outside a local hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.

A group coordinating protests stated they were motivated by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. In an interview, Scotland's leader 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 between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.