🔗 Share this article Nigel Farage Addresses Party's Biggest Gathering in Scotland Amid Scrutiny and Defection The Reform UK figurehead addressed the largest the party's rally held in Scotland to date, however avoided engaging with the press corps following the event. In his place, recently switched peer the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on allegations of racism and anti-Jewish sentiment linked to Farage. A High-Profile Defection The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor during a packed event of about 700 attendees in a hotel venue near Falkirk. The businessman, who worked as a Scotland Office minister in the previous administration and most recently served as 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 next May’s Holyrood elections. The leader stated he was “delighted” to greet Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”. Dodging the Press Farage spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which saw him launch a fierce criticism of the broadcaster for questioning him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks from his teenage years. However, the leader avoided the expected press huddle post-rally. Questioned why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to address growing claims concerning his history, the new recruit responded: “You’ll need to ask him that question.” Pressed on whether he believed Farage should apologise for his alleged remarks towards Jewish pupils, 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 the country's leader and denied he was employing coded political messaging. While addressing supporters, the leader had reiterated on his remarks 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?” 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 “drawing attention to a real concern” that people are talking about on the doorstep”. A Party on the Rise The rally, attended by an energetic and enthused crowd of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who each paid £6 to attend, showcases the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections. Although the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has made substantial progress recently, achieving a quarter of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. 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 party membership north of the border had quadrupled over the last twelve months to 12,000 members, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, putting the party in “a very strong position” at Holyrood. Campaign Rhetoric Thomas Kerr, a local representative for the party, prompted a roar of approval as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He instructed the crowd to “man the barricades as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the next five months will be tough”. Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”. Farage himself expressed his pleasure at the party’s emergence as a force in the political scene in Scotland in the last year, confessing to supporters that in previous years he had been warned he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”. Local Context Meanwhile, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters assembled for what have become regular weekly confrontations outside a local 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 asylum seekers or migrants and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”. 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.