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The Reform UK figurehead addressed the largest Reform UK rally so far in Scotland, however avoided engaging with the press corps following the event. Instead, newly defected peer Malcolm Offord took on the task of field questions on allegations of racism and antisemitism linked to Farage.

A High-Profile Defection

The leader presented the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor during a packed event of about 700 attendees in a hotel venue in central Scotland. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland under the last government and most recently served as the Scottish Tory party's chief financial officer, announced his intention to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for the party in next May’s Holyrood elections.

Farage said he was “delighted” to welcome Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a brave and historic act”.

Dodging the Press

Farage spoke to the crowd after a turbulent week which included him delivering a tirade against the BBC after they quizzed him about an investigation into alleged racist and remarks as a youth. However, the leader avoided a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event.

Questioned why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to address growing claims concerning his history, Offord said: “That is a question for him to answer.”

Challenged about whether he believed an apology was necessary for the comments he is said to have made about Jewish students, he stated: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.”

Insisting on Fitness

Offord insisted that the leader is “ethically suitable” to be prime minister 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?”

While the first minister, John Swinney criticised Farage’s original remarks as “racist”, and the Labour leader labeled them “toxic and divisive”, Offord maintained that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”.

Growing Confidence

The rally, filled with an energetic and enthused crowd of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, showcases Reform's increasing self-assurance ahead of the Scottish vote.

Although the Scottish National Party remains ahead, Reform UK has made substantial progress in the past year, achieving a quarter of the vote in its first Holyrood byelection test. Following Scottish Labour's decline, the party has often relegated it to third lately, polling up to 22%.

Declaring that party membership north of the border had increased fourfold over the last twelve months to a running total of 12,000, a senior party official said he believed it could win around twenty parliamentary seats in May, putting the party in “a powerful situation” at Holyrood.

Campaign Rhetoric

Thomas Kerr, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he referred to the leader as “the future PM of the UK”. He instructed the crowd to “prepare for a fight” as we take on the political establishment”, cautioning that “the coming campaign will be difficult”.

Despite not yet publishing any Scotland-specific policies, speakers from the north-east pledged Reform 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 in the last year, confessing to supporters that in previous years he had been warned he “couldn't fill a small venue”.

Protests Nearby

As the event was taking place, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, demonstrators with opposing views assembled for what have become regular weekly confrontations outside a local hotel where asylum seekers are now housed.

The organisers of the demonstrations said it was galvanised by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. In an interview, Scotland's leader cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to apportion the blame … to new arrivals and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”.

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