The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the largest Reform UK rally so far in Scotland, however declined to speak with local journalists afterwards. In his place, newly defected peer the former Conservative donor took on the task of field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism surrounding Farage.
Welcoming a New Recruit
The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman during a packed event of about 700 supporters in a hotel venue in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland in the previous administration and was until recently the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in next May’s Holyrood elections.
The leader stated he was “delighted” to greet the new member. He described the switch as “a brave and historic act”.
Dodging the Press
Farage addressed the rally following a difficult period which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks from his teenage years. However, Farage dodged a planned media briefing post-rally.
When asked why Farage did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations concerning his history, Offord said: “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, Offord said: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”
Defending the Leader
The peer maintained that Farage was “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and rejected claims of coded political messaging. While addressing supporters, 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?”
While Scotland's First Minister criticised the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer called them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained 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, highlights Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.
While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has gained significant ground in the past year, securing 26% 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, polling up to 22%.
Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland had quadrupled in the past year 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
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 “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.
Despite not yet publishing a distinct policy platform for Scotland, representatives vowed the party would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.
Farage himself expressed his pleasure at Reform's rise as a significant player in the political scene in Scotland in the last year, admitting to the audience that in previous years he had been warned he “couldn't fill a small venue”.
Protests Nearby
Meanwhile, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views were gathering for what have become regular weekly confrontations near a hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.
A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to apportion the blame … to asylum seekers or migrants and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.
He also made a clear distinction between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or community safety.
