🔗 Share this article

Nigel Farage spoke to the biggest the party's rally held in Scotland to date, however declined to speak with local journalists following the event. Instead, newly defected peer the former Conservative donor was left to field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism surrounding Farage.

Welcoming a New Recruit

The leader presented the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor during a sold-out rally of about 700 attendees at a hotel conference centre in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked as a Scotland Office minister under the last government and was until recently the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, stated his plan to give up his peerage 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”.

Avoiding Media Scrutiny

Farage addressed the rally following a difficult period which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC for questioning 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 was not available to address growing claims concerning his history, the new recruit responded: “You’ll need to ask him that question.”

Challenged about if he thought an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made about Jewish students, Offord said: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”

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. During his speech, the leader had reiterated on previous comments about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who are not native English speakers by posing the question to the crowd: “Who authorised the complete transformation of Glasgow's demographics?”

Although the first minister, John Swinney criticised the initial comments as “discriminatory”, and the Labour leader called them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.

A Party on the Rise

The rally, filled with an lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance before next May’s elections.

While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, the party 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, 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 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, a local representative for the party, elicited loud cheers as he described Farage as “the future PM of the UK”. He instructed the crowd to “man the barricades as we take on the political establishment”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Although the party has yet to produce any Scotland-specific policies, representatives vowed the party would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.

The leader personally underlined his delight at Reform's rise as a significant player in Scottish politics over the past 12 months, confessing to supporters that he was once told he “wouldn’t get 20 people in a room”.

Local Context

Meanwhile, not far away in the heart of Falkirk, demonstrators with opposing views were gathering 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 serious local crime. In an interview, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that “what the far right do 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 “legitimate points” about strain on public services or neighbourhood security.