Nigel Farage spoke to the largest Reform UK rally so far in Scotland, however declined to speak with local journalists afterwards. In his place, recently switched member of the House of Lords the former Conservative donor was left to responding to queries on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to Farage.
Welcoming a New Recruit
The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor at a sold-out rally of about 700 supporters at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland under the last government and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, announced his intention to relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in next May’s Holyrood elections.
The leader stated he was “extremely pleased” to greet the new member. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.
Dodging the Press
The Reform leader spoke to the crowd following a difficult period which included him delivering a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him regarding a report into alleged racist and remarks from his teenage years. However, Farage dodged a planned media briefing post-rally.
Questioned why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations 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: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”
Insisting on Fitness
The peer maintained that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and rejected claims of coded political messaging. While addressing supporters, Farage had doubled down 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 the first minister, John Swinney criticised the initial comments as “racist”, and the Labour leader labeled them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that his new leader was “drawing attention to a real concern” that “voters are discussing”.
Growing Confidence
The rally, filled with an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who each paid £6 to attend, highlights 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 in the past year, securing 26% of the vote in a recent parliamentary by-election. Following Scottish Labour's decline, 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 in the past year to a running total of 12,000, the party chair, David Bull said he believed it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, putting the party in “a powerful situation” in the Scottish Parliament.
Campaign Rhetoric
A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, prompted a roar of approval as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He instructed the crowd to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.
Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, representatives vowed the party 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 over the past 12 months, admitting to the audience 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, not far away in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views were gathering for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.
A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a serious local crime. 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 source of a harmful narrative”.
However, he differentiated extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about strain on public services or community safety.
