by Bill Heaney
Malcolm Offord has been named as Reform UK’s new leader in Scotland ahead of May’s Holyrood election.
The former Tory peer will resign his seat in the House of Lords with his party on course to emerge as one of the biggest political forces in Scotland, according to the right wing press.
Mr Farage was listed as the witness, with Lord Offord’s resignation set to take effect on January 31. The pair later symbolically signed the letter on the stage, with Mr Farage saying: “And with this Lord Offord of Garvel becomes Malcolm from Greenock,” to wide applause.
Another graphic highlighted the growth of Reform in various by-elections across Scotland.
The event came just hours after a new poll suggested the party was on course to win 18 seats in May, the same as Scottish Labour, but that has been all but discarded following Tuesday’s Scottish budget which has left the SNP odds on to remain in government.
Among those in attendance were Reform’s only MSP Graeme Simpson, a Tory who used to be a a reporter on a failing newspaper in Stirling, and Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, who was optimisically said by some to have also been in the running for the top job.
A former banker, Lord Offord served in Scotland Office under the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak, but defected to Reform last year.
Mr Farage’s visit came on the same day Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch were in Scotland.
Mr Farage took to the stage and said the party had 100 “vetted” candidates for the upcoming election.
But they still haven’t announced who will represent them to take on Dame Jackie Baillie in the Dumbarton constituency which includes Cardross, Helensburgh, Rhu and the Rosneath Peninsula, although David Smith, who lives in Dumbarton, is being tipped to wear the Reform rosette. He won’t win.
Farage said his party would be seen as a main opposition to the SNP and said his party was “united in our vision”, in comparison to the Tories and Labour.
However, there was no detail as to what that vision would mean if his party won significant representation.
He said the party could “give people that little four-letter word that we’re all struggling for at the moment…hope”. Mr Farage praised Lord Offord for his “brave and principled” move in stepping down from the House of Lords.
The UK leader said party members would elect the next leader but Reform remained a “work in progress” and “time is short”. He predicted the party would “even surprise itself” in the election and that a “huge chunk” of Scotland was “looking for something different” after 18 years of SNP rule.
Lord Offord said he was “delighted” to be announced as leader of Reform in Scotland. he insisted his party had the electoral momentum and pledged a “very positive campaign” with the goal of removing the “rotten” SNP government.
He said: “We represent ordinary, decent, hardworking Scots who are fed up with mid-table mediocrity in Holyrood. Which is why we will be fielding Reform candidates in all 73 constituencies with one sole objective: to get Scotland back to the top of the table. Make no mistake, this is now a two-horse race between Reform and the SNP.”
He said Holyrood had been “run by a centre-left agenda”. The focus, he said, will be on setting the “direction of travel” and vowed Reform was “well-funded, well-motivated”.