🔗 Share this article Reform UK Leader Speaks at Party's Biggest Gathering in Scotland Following Controversy and High-Profile Switch Nigel Farage addressed the biggest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, but declined to speak with local journalists afterwards. In his place, newly defected peer Malcolm Offord was left to responding to queries on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to Farage. A High-Profile Defection The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor during a packed event of roughly seven hundred supporters in a hotel venue near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a junior minister for Scotland under the last government and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote. The leader stated he was “delighted” to greet Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”. Avoiding Media Scrutiny The Reform leader addressed the rally after a turbulent week which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC for questioning him regarding a report into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour from his teenage years. However, the leader avoided the expected press huddle after Saturday’s event. Questioned why his new party’s leader was not available to answer mounting allegations about his past behaviour, the new recruit responded: “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, Offord said: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.” Defending the Leader Offord insisted that the leader is “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. During his speech, Farage had doubled down on previous comments about pupils in Glasgow who are not native English speakers by posing the question to the crowd: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?” Although the first minister, John Swinney condemned Farage’s original remarks as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader labeled them “toxic and divisive”, the defector argued that Farage was “drawing attention to a real concern” that people are talking about on the doorstep”. A Party on the Rise The event, filled with an energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, highlights the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections. While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, achieving a quarter 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 lately, with support reaching over a fifth. Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland had increased fourfold in the past year to 12,000 members, the party chair, David Bull said he believed it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” in the Scottish Parliament. Campaign Rhetoric A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He instructed the crowd to “prepare for a fight” as we take on the political establishment”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”. Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east vowed the party would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”. The leader personally expressed his pleasure at Reform's rise as a significant player in Scottish politics in the last year, confessing to supporters that he was once told 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 were gathering for what have become regular weekly confrontations outside a local hotel where asylum seekers are now housed. The organisers of the demonstrations said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. In an interview, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to assign responsibility … 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 “legitimate points” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.