🔗 Share this article

The Reform UK figurehead spoke to the biggest Reform UK rally so far in Scotland, but avoided engaging with the press corps afterwards. Instead, newly defected member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor took on the task of responding to queries on allegations of racism and anti-Jewish sentiment linked to Farage.

A High-Profile Defection

Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor at a packed event of roughly seven hundred supporters at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland 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 stand for Reform UK in next May’s Holyrood elections.

Farage said he was “extremely pleased” to welcome the new member. He called the peer’s defection as “a courageous and significant move”.

Dodging the Press

Farage spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which included him delivering a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him about an investigation into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. But, Farage dodged a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event.

When asked why Farage was not available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on 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.”

Defending the Leader

The peer maintained that the leader is “morally fit” to be prime minister and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. During his speech, the leader had reiterated on previous comments about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who are not native English speakers by asking the rally: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

Although the first minister, John Swinney criticised Farage’s original remarks as “racist”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “toxic and divisive”, the defector argued 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 lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, highlights the party’s growing confidence ahead of the Scottish vote.

While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, the party 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, with support reaching over a fifth.

Announcing that Reform UK membership in Scotland had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, a senior party official said he believed it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, which would place Reform in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood.

Campaign Rhetoric

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he referred to the leader as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Despite not yet publishing a distinct policy platform for Scotland, representatives vowed the party would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.

Farage himself underlined his delight at Reform's rise as a significant player 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”.

Protests Nearby

As the event was taking place, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views 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 criminal case involving an asylum seeker. In an interview, Scotland's leader warned that the tactic of the far-right is to apportion the blame … to new arrivals and I think that is the root of the poison”.

He also made a clear distinction between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about strain on public services or neighbourhood security.