The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, but declined to speak with local journalists afterwards. In his place, recently switched member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord was left to responding to queries on allegations of racism and anti-Jewish sentiment surrounding the party leader.
Welcoming a New Recruit
The leader presented the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor at a packed event of about 700 supporters in a hotel venue near Falkirk. 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 relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in next May’s Holyrood elections.
Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to welcome Offord to the party. He called the peer’s defection 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 tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him regarding a report into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. However, the leader avoided the expected press huddle after Saturday’s event.
When asked why Farage was not available to address growing claims concerning his history, Offord said: “That is a question for him to answer.”
Challenged about whether he believed an apology was necessary for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, he stated: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”
Defending the Leader
The peer maintained that Farage was “morally fit” 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 voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”
Although the first minister, John Swinney criticised Farage’s original remarks as “racist”, and the Labour leader labeled 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 lively and passionate audience 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, the party has gained significant ground recently, securing 26% of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. After the collapse in support for Scottish Labour, Reform has regularly pushed it into third place in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.
Announcing that party membership north of the border had quadrupled in the past year to a running total of 12,000, a senior party official said he believed it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, putting the party in “a very strong position” in the Scottish Parliament.
Campaign Rhetoric
Thomas Kerr, a local representative for the party, prompted a roar of approval as he referred to the leader as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.
Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, representatives pledged Reform would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.
Farage himself underlined his delight at Reform's rise as a significant player in the political scene in Scotland over the past 12 months, admitting to the audience that he was once told he “couldn't fill a small venue”.
Local Context
Meanwhile, not far away in Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters were gathering for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.
The organisers of the demonstrations stated they were motivated by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader warned 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”.
However, he differentiated extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.
