🔗 Share this article

Nigel Farage addressed the largest the party's public meeting so far in Scotland, however avoided engaging with the press corps afterwards. Instead, recently switched member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord took on the task of field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to the party leader.

Welcoming a New Recruit

Farage introduced the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor at 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 most recently served as treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for the party in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.

Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to greet Offord to the party. He called the peer’s defection as “a brave and historic act”.

Avoiding Media Scrutiny

The Reform leader addressed the rally following a difficult period which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC for questioning him regarding a report into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour from his teenage years. However, the leader avoided the expected press huddle after Saturday’s event.

Questioned why Farage did not make himself available to address growing claims concerning his history, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on whether he believed an apology was necessary for his alleged remarks towards Jewish pupils, he stated: “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 the country's leader and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. While addressing supporters, Farage had doubled down on his remarks about pupils in Glasgow who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

Although Scotland's First Minister criticised Farage’s original remarks as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader labeled them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that Farage was “drawing attention to a real concern” that “voters are discussing”.

A Party on the Rise

The event, filled with 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 ahead of the Scottish vote.

While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, 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, the party has often relegated it to third in recent months, polling up to 22%.

Announcing that party membership north of the border had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, putting the party in “a powerful situation” 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 “man the barricades as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the next five months will be tough”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, representatives vowed the party would “confront climate activists and those profiting from green policies”.

Farage himself underlined his delight at the party’s emergence as a force in Scottish politics in the last year, admitting to the audience that in previous years he had been warned he “couldn't fill a small venue”.

Local Context

As the event was taking place, not far away in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for what have become regular weekly confrontations near a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.

A group coordinating protests stated they were motivated by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, Scotland's leader cautioned that “what the far right do 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 extremist opinions and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or community safety.