🔗 Share this article Reform UK Leader Addresses Movement's Biggest Gathering in Scotland Amid Scrutiny and Defection Nigel Farage spoke to the biggest the party's public meeting held in Scotland to date, but avoided engaging with the press corps afterwards. In his place, newly defected peer Malcolm Offord was left to responding to queries on allegations of racism and anti-Jewish sentiment linked to the party leader. A High-Profile Defection Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor at a packed event of roughly seven hundred supporters at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister in the previous administration 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 become a candidate for the party in next May’s Holyrood elections. Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to greet Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a brave and historic act”. Avoiding Media Scrutiny The Reform leader spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC for questioning him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. However, the leader avoided 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 Farage should apologise for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, he stated: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.” Insisting on Fitness The peer maintained that the leader is “morally fit” to be the country's leader and denied he was employing coded political messaging. During his speech, Farage had doubled down on his remarks about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who speak English as a second language by posing the question to the crowd: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?” Although the first minister, John Swinney criticised the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and Keir Starmer called them “toxic and divisive”, the defector argued that his new leader was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”. A Party on the Rise The event, attended by an energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who each paid £6 to attend, highlights the party’s growing confidence ahead of the Scottish vote. Although the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. After the collapse in support for Scottish Labour, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, polling up to 22%. Declaring that party membership north of the border had quadrupled over the last twelve months to 12,000 members, 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 A Reform councillor, a local representative for the party, elicited loud cheers as he referred to the leader as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He instructed the crowd to “man the barricades as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the next five months will be tough”. Despite not yet publishing a distinct policy platform for Scotland, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform 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 the political scene in Scotland 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 Falkirk town centre, 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 said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. In an interview, Scotland's leader cautioned that “what the far right do 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.