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The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest Reform UK rally held in Scotland to date, however declined to speak with local journalists afterwards. Instead, recently switched peer Malcolm Offord was left to responding to queries on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to the party leader.

Welcoming a New Recruit

Farage introduced the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor during a sold-out rally of roughly seven hundred attendees at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a junior minister for Scotland under the last government and most recently served as the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to stand for Reform UK in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.

The leader stated he was “delighted” to greet Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.

Avoiding Media Scrutiny

Farage addressed the rally after a turbulent week which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and remarks as a youth. But, Farage dodged the expected press huddle post-rally.

Questioned why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on if he thought an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made about Jewish students, Offord said: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”

Defending the Leader

The peer maintained that Farage was “ethically suitable” to be prime minister and denied he was employing coded political messaging. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on his remarks about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”

While the first minister, John Swinney criticised the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and Keir Starmer called them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that people are talking about on the doorstep”.

A Party on the Rise

The rally, attended by an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who each paid £6 to attend, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance before next May’s elections.

Although the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, achieving a quarter 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 lately, with support reaching over a fifth.

Announcing that party membership north of the border had quadrupled in the past year to 12,000 members, the party chair, David Bull said he believed it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” in the Scottish Parliament.

Campaign Rhetoric

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the next five months will be tough”.

Although the party has yet to produce a distinct policy platform for Scotland, representatives 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 Scottish politics over the past 12 months, admitting to the audience that he was once told he “couldn't fill a small venue”.

Local Context

Meanwhile, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for what have become regular weekly confrontations outside a local hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.

A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a serious local crime. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader warned that “what the far right do is to assign responsibility … to asylum seekers or migrants and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.

However, he differentiated extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about strain on public services or community safety.