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Nigel Farage addressed the largest Reform UK public meeting so far in Scotland, but avoided engaging with the press corps 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 surrounding the party leader.

Welcoming a New Recruit

The leader presented the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor during a packed event of roughly seven hundred supporters in a hotel venue near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister under the last government and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to stand for the party in next May’s Holyrood elections.

Farage said he was “delighted” to welcome Offord to the party. He called the peer’s defection as “a courageous and significant move”.

Dodging the Press

Farage spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which saw him launch a fierce criticism of the broadcaster for questioning him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. However, the leader avoided a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event.

When asked why his new party’s leader was not available to address growing claims concerning his history, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Challenged about if he thought Farage should apologise for the comments he is said to have made about Jewish students, Offord said: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”

Insisting on Fitness

The peer maintained that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and denied he was employing coded political messaging. During his speech, the leader had reiterated on previous comments about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who speak English as a second language by asking the rally: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

While Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader called them “toxic and divisive”, the defector argued that his new leader was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.

Growing Confidence

The rally, attended by an energetic and enthused crowd of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, showcases the party’s growing confidence ahead of the Scottish vote.

While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, securing 26% of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. After the collapse in support for Scottish Labour, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, with support reaching over a fifth.

Declaring that party membership north of the border had quadrupled in the past year to 12,000 members, a senior party official said he believed it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a very strong position” at Holyrood.

Fighting Talk

A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, 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”, cautioning that “the next five months will be tough”.

Despite not yet publishing a distinct policy platform for Scotland, speakers from the north-east vowed the party would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.

The leader personally underlined his delight at the party’s emergence as a force in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, confessing to supporters that he was once told he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.

Local Context

As the event was taking place, not far away 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 stated they were motivated by a serious local crime. In an interview, First Minister John Swinney warned 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”.

However, he differentiated between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about strain on public services or community safety.