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The Reform UK figurehead addressed the biggest Reform UK public meeting held in Scotland to date, but avoided engaging with local journalists afterwards. In his place, newly defected peer Malcolm Offord was left to responding to queries on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism surrounding Farage.

Welcoming a New Recruit

The leader presented the ex-Tory lord and millionaire donor during 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 treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, stated his plan to relinquish his seat in the Lords in order to become a candidate for the party in next May’s Holyrood elections.

The leader stated he was “extremely pleased” to welcome Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a courageous and significant move”.

Dodging the Press

Farage addressed the rally following a difficult period which saw him launch a fierce criticism of the broadcaster after they quizzed him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. But, Farage dodged a planned media briefing post-rally.

Questioned why his new party’s leader was not available to answer mounting allegations about his past behaviour, 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: “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 voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

While Scotland's First Minister criticised Farage’s original remarks as “racist”, and the Labour leader labeled them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.

A Party on the Rise

The event, attended by an lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers 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 gained significant ground 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 in recent months, polling up to 22%.

Announcing that Reform UK membership in Scotland had quadrupled in the past year to 12,000 members, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a very strong position” at Holyrood.

Campaign Rhetoric

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, prompted a roar of approval as he described Farage as “Britain’s next prime minister”. He told supporters to “man the barricades as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

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 over the past 12 months, admitting to the audience that he was once told he “couldn't fill a small venue”.

Protests Nearby

As the event was taking place, a few miles west in the heart of Falkirk, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters assembled for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers.

The organisers of the demonstrations said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. Speaking previously, First Minister John Swinney warned that the tactic of the far-right is to assign responsibility … to asylum seekers or migrants 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 community safety.