🔗 Share this article Nigel Farage Speaks at Movement's Largest Gathering in Scotland Following Scrutiny and High-Profile Switch Nigel Farage addressed the largest the party's public meeting so far in Scotland, but avoided engaging with the press corps following the event. In his place, newly defected member of the House of Lords Malcolm Offord was left to responding to queries on claims of discriminatory behaviour and antisemitism linked to Farage. Welcoming a New Recruit Farage introduced the former Conservative peer and millionaire donor during a sold-out rally of about 700 attendees at a hotel conference centre near Falkirk. The businessman, who worked as a junior minister for Scotland in the previous administration and was until recently treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives, stated his plan to give up his peerage in order to become a candidate for Reform UK in the upcoming Scottish parliament vote. Farage said he was “delighted” to greet Offord to the party. He described the switch as “a brave and historic act”. Dodging the Press The Reform leader addressed the rally following a difficult period which saw him launch a tirade against the BBC for questioning him regarding a report into claimed discriminatory and antisemitic behaviour as a youth. But, Farage dodged a planned media briefing after Saturday’s event. When asked why his new party’s leader did not make himself available to address growing claims about his past behaviour, the new recruit responded: “That is a question for him to answer.” Pressed on if he thought Farage should apologise for his alleged remarks towards Jewish pupils, he stated: “I think that’s something he’ll need to consider with his own advisers.” Defending the Leader Offord insisted that Farage was “morally fit” to be prime minister and denied he was employing coded political messaging. While addressing supporters, 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 the first minister, John Swinney criticised the initial comments as “racist”, and Keir Starmer labeled them “harmful and polarising”, Offord maintained that Farage was “highlighting a factual issue that “voters are discussing”. A Party on the Rise The rally, attended by an lively and passionate audience of predominantly older, white male backers who bought tickets for the event, showcases the party’s growing confidence before next May’s elections. While the SNP continues to lead in the polls, Reform UK has gained significant ground recently, 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 lately, with support reaching over a fifth. Announcing that party membership north of the border had quadrupled over the last twelve months to 12,000 members, the party chair, David Bull stated his belief it could gain up to 20 MSPs in May, which would place Reform in “a very strong position” at Holyrood. Fighting Talk A Reform councillor, one of Reform’s 19 Scottish councillors, elicited loud cheers as he referred to the leader as “the future PM of the UK”. He told supporters to “man the barricades as we take on the political establishment”, warning that “the next five months will be tough”. 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”. Farage himself 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 “couldn't fill a small venue”. Protests Nearby Meanwhile, a few miles west in Falkirk town centre, demonstrators with opposing views were gathering for a now-regular weekly standoff near a hotel where asylum seekers are now housed. The organisers of the demonstrations stated they were motivated by a criminal case involving an asylum seeker. In an interview, First Minister John Swinney cautioned that the tactic of the far-right is to assign responsibility … to new arrivals and I think that is the source of a harmful narrative”. He also made a clear distinction extremist opinions and people with “legitimate points” about pressure on local services or neighbourhood security.