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Nigel Farage addressed the biggest the party's public meeting so far in Scotland, however avoided engaging 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 anti-Jewish sentiment surrounding Farage.

A High-Profile Defection

The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman at a sold-out rally of roughly seven hundred supporters in a hotel venue near Falkirk. Offord, who served as a Scotland Office minister in the previous administration and most recently served as 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 the upcoming Scottish parliament vote.

The leader stated he was “delighted” to welcome the new member. He called the peer’s defection as “a brave and historic act”.

Dodging the Press

Farage spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him regarding a report into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. But, Farage dodged a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event.

Questioned why Farage did not make himself available to answer mounting allegations about his past behaviour, Offord said: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Pressed on if he thought Farage should apologise for the comments he is said to have made 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 the leader is “morally fit” to be the country's leader and rejected claims of dog-whistle politics. During his speech, Farage had doubled down on his remarks about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren 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 Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained 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 event, attended by an lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, highlights Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.

Although the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has gained significant ground in the past year, 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, polling up to 22%.

Declaring that party membership north of the border had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to 12,000 members, a senior party official said he believed it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, putting the party in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood.

Fighting Talk

Thomas Kerr, a local representative for the party, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “prepare for a fight” as we take on the political establishment”, cautioning that “the next five months will be tough”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, representatives vowed the party 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 the political scene in Scotland in the last year, admitting to the audience that in previous years he had been warned he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.

Local Context

Meanwhile, not far away in Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff outside a local hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.

A group coordinating protests said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, 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”.

However, he differentiated extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.