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Nigel Farage addressed the largest Reform UK public meeting so far in Scotland, but declined to speak with the press corps following the event. In his place, newly defected member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord was left to field questions on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to the party leader.

Welcoming a New Recruit

Farage introduced the ex-Tory lord and wealthy businessman at a packed event of about 700 attendees at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. 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, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to stand 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 brave and historic act”.

Avoiding Media Scrutiny

Farage addressed the rally after a turbulent week which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him about an investigation into alleged racist and antisemitic behaviour from his teenage years. But, the leader avoided a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event.

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

Challenged about whether he believed an apology was necessary for his alleged remarks about Jewish students, he stated: “That is a matter for him to deliberate on with his team.”

Defending the Leader

The peer maintained that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and denied he was employing dog-whistle politics. During his speech, Farage had doubled down on his remarks about the number of Glasgow schoolchildren who speak English as a second language by posing the question to the crowd: “Who voted for the wholesale change of the population of Glasgow?”

Although Scotland's First Minister condemned the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “harmful and polarising”, the defector argued that his new leader was “drawing attention to a real concern” that “voters are discussing”.

A Party on the Rise

The event, attended by an lively and passionate audience of largely male, white and middle-aged supporters who bought tickets for the event, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.

While the Scottish National Party remains ahead, 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 Reform UK membership in Scotland 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 win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, which would place Reform in “a very strong position” in the Scottish Parliament.

Fighting Talk

A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, prompted a roar of approval as he described Farage as “the future PM of the UK”. He instructed the crowd to “prepare for a fight” as we “challenge the ruling class”, warning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east vowed the party would “take on the green blob and the net-zero grifters”.

Farage himself expressed his pleasure at the party’s emergence as a force in the political scene in Scotland 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 Falkirk town centre, anti-immigration and anti-racist protesters were gathering for what have become regular weekly confrontations 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, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that “what the far right do is to assign responsibility … to new arrivals and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.

However, he differentiated between those who hold far-right views and people with “valid concerns” about pressure on local services or community safety.