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Nigel Farage addressed the largest Reform UK public meeting so far in Scotland, however declined to speak with local journalists following the event. Instead, recently switched member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord took on the task of responding to queries on claims of discriminatory behaviour and anti-Jewish sentiment surrounding Farage.

A High-Profile Defection

The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor at a packed event of roughly seven hundred supporters at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a junior minister for Scotland in the previous administration and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, announced his intention to relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to stand for the party in next May’s Holyrood elections.

Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to welcome Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.

Dodging the Press

Farage addressed the rally 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. 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 concerning his history, the new recruit responded: “That is a question for him to answer.”

Challenged about if he thought Farage should apologise 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

Offord insisted that the leader is “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on previous comments about pupils in Glasgow who speak English as a second language by asking the rally: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”

Although Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader called them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.

A Party on the Rise

The event, filled with an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who each paid £6 to attend, highlights the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections.

Although the Scottish National Party remains ahead, the party has gained significant ground in the past year, 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.

Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to 12,000 members, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” in the Scottish Parliament.

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 instructed the crowd to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.

Farage himself expressed his pleasure at the party’s emergence as a force 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”.

Local Context

Meanwhile, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters were gathering for a now-regular weekly standoff 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. In an interview, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to apportion the blame … to new arrivals and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.

He also made a clear distinction extremist opinions and people with “valid concerns” about strain on public services or community safety.