🔗 Share this article Nigel Farage Speaks at Party's Largest Scottish Rally Following Scrutiny and High-Profile Switch The Reform UK figurehead addressed the largest the party's rally held in Scotland to date, however avoided engaging with local journalists following the event. In his place, newly defected member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to Farage. A High-Profile Defection Farage introduced the former Conservative peer and wealthy businessman during a packed event of about 700 attendees in a hotel venue in central Scotland. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister 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 “delighted” to greet the new member. 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 about an investigation into claimed discriminatory and remarks from his teenage years. But, Farage dodged the expected press huddle post-rally. When asked why his new party’s leader was not available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.” Challenged about 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.” Defending the Leader Offord insisted that Farage was “ethically suitable” to be the country's leader and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. 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 authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?” While Scotland's First Minister criticised the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader called them “harmful and polarising”, the defector argued that his new leader 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 bought tickets for the event, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance before next May’s elections. While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, securing 26% of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. Following Scottish Labour's decline, the party has often relegated it to third lately, polling up to 22%. Declaring that Reform UK membership in Scotland had quadrupled over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, the party chair, David Bull said he believed it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, putting the party in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood. Campaign Rhetoric A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “the future PM of the UK”. He told supporters to “man the barricades as we take on the political establishment”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”. Although the party has yet to produce a distinct policy platform for Scotland, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”. The leader personally 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 “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”. Local Context As the event was taking place, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff outside a local hotel where asylum seekers are now housed. The organisers of the demonstrations stated they were motivated 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 asylum seekers or migrants and I think that is the root of the poison”. He also made a clear distinction extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about pressure on local services or community safety.