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The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, but declined to speak with local journalists afterwards. Instead, recently switched member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord was left to field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism surrounding the party leader.

A High-Profile Defection

The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman during a packed event of about 700 attendees in a hotel venue in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland under the last government 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 the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.

The leader stated 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 spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which included him delivering a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and antisemitic behaviour from his teenage years. However, the leader avoided the expected press huddle post-rally.

When asked why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations concerning his history, the new recruit responded: “That is a question for him to answer.”

Pressed on whether he believed 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.”

Defending the Leader

Offord insisted that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and rejected claims of coded political messaging. During his speech, Farage had doubled down on previous comments about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who speak English as a second language by asking the rally: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

Although the first minister, John Swinney condemned Farage’s original remarks as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader labeled them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.

Growing Confidence

The event, filled with an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.

While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has made substantial progress recently, achieving a quarter of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. Following Scottish Labour's decline, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.

Declaring that party membership north of the border had increased fourfold in the past year to a running total of 12,000, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood.

Fighting Talk

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he referred to the leader as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “man the barricades as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the next five months will be tough”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.

Farage himself underlined his delight at Reform's rise as a significant player in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, confessing to supporters that in previous years he had been warned he “couldn't fill a small venue”.

Protests Nearby

As the event was taking place, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff near a 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, First Minister John Swinney 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”.

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