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The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest Reform UK rally so far in Scotland, however avoided engaging with local journalists afterwards. Instead, recently switched member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord was left to field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism surrounding the party leader.

A High-Profile Defection

The leader presented the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor during a sold-out rally of about 700 attendees in a hotel venue in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked 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 relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to stand 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 addressed the rally following a difficult period which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. But, Farage dodged the expected press huddle post-rally.

When asked why his new party’s leader was not available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on if he thought an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made towards Jewish pupils, he stated: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”

Insisting on Fitness

Offord insisted that Farage was “ethically suitable” to be prime minister and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on his remarks about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who speak English as a second language by asking the rally: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”

While Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer called them “harmful and polarising”, the defector argued that Farage was “drawing attention to a real concern” that people are talking about on the doorstep”.

Growing Confidence

The event, filled with an lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers who each paid £6 to attend, showcases the party’s growing confidence ahead of the Scottish vote.

Although the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has gained significant ground in the past year, securing 26% of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. After the collapse in support for Scottish Labour, Reform has regularly pushed it into third place in recent months, polling up to 22%.

Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland 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 win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, putting the party in “a powerful situation” in the Scottish Parliament.

Campaign Rhetoric

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, 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 coming campaign will be difficult”.

Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, representatives pledged Reform would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.

The leader personally underlined his delight at the party’s emergence as a force in the political scene in Scotland in the last year, admitting to the audience that in previous years he had been warned 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 a now-regular weekly standoff outside a local hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.

The organisers of the demonstrations stated they were motivated by a serious local crime. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader cautioned 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”.

He also made a clear distinction extremist opinions and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.