Nigel Farage addressed the biggest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, however avoided engaging with local journalists following the event. Instead, recently switched member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord was left to field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to Farage.
Welcoming a New Recruit
The leader presented the former Conservative peer and wealthy businessman at a sold-out rally of about 700 supporters at a hotel conference centre in central Scotland. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister in the previous administration and was until recently the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, stated his plan to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.
Farage said he was “delighted” to welcome the new member. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.
Dodging the Press
Farage spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC for questioning him about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and antisemitic behaviour from his teenage years. However, the leader avoided a planned media briefing post-rally.
When asked why Farage did not make himself available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, the new recruit responded: “That is a question for him to answer.”
Pressed on whether he believed an apology was necessary for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, he stated: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”
Insisting on Fitness
The peer maintained that the leader is “morally fit” to be prime minister and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on his remarks about pupils in Glasgow who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”
Although Scotland's First Minister criticised Farage’s original remarks as “racist”, and Keir Starmer called them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.
A Party on the Rise
The rally, filled with an energetic and enthused crowd of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, highlights the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections.
While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has made substantial progress in the past year, securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. Following Scottish Labour's decline, Reform has regularly pushed it into third place in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.
Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland had quadrupled in the past year to a running total of 12,000, a senior party official said he believed it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood.
Campaign Rhetoric
A Reform councillor, a local representative for the party, prompted a roar of approval as he described Farage as “the future PM of the UK”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we take on the political establishment”, warning that “the next five months will be tough”.
Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, representatives pledged Reform would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.
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
As the event was taking place, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters were gathering for a now-regular weekly standoff 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. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader warned that “what the far right do is to apportion the blame … to new arrivals and I think that is the root of the poison”.
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.
