Nigel Farage unveiled Reform UK’s first member of the House of Lords on Saturday after the Conservative peer Malcolm Offord defected to his party – but refused to answer questions from journalists on allegations of racism and his use of anti‑immigration rhetoric.

Offord, a former Scotland Office and exports minister formally known as Lord Offord of Garvel, told a packed Reform rally near Falkirk that he would resign his seat in the Lords to stand for the party at the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. His defection delivers Reform a high‑profile figure in Scotland and intensifies the pressure on the already weakened Scottish Conservatives.

Farage introduced Offord to loud applause at what organisers said was Reform’s largest Scottish rally to date, held at a conference venue close to Falkirk. The Reform leader delivered a set‑piece speech heavily focused on immigration, crime and opposition to net zero policies, but left the stage without taking questions, despite a substantial media presence.

Journalists attempting to speak to Farage were blocked by staff, and he was escorted from the venue surrounded by aides. Questions on his recent comments about Glasgow schoolchildren and on historic allegations of racist and antisemitic behaviour were instead put to Offord, who defended his new party leader.

Offord backed Farage’s widely criticised claim that around one in three Glasgow school pupils do not have English as a first language – a statistic he has used to argue that the city is undergoing what he called a “cultural smashing”. Offord said Farage was “highlighting an issue which needs to be talked about” and rejected accusations that the remarks amounted to a racist “dog whistle”.

Farage’s comments have drawn cross‑party condemnation. The Scottish first minister, John Swinney, has described them as “simply racist” and said multilingual classrooms are an asset to Scotland, while the prime minister, Keir Starmer, has called Farage a “toxic, divisive disgrace”. Both men accuse the Reform leader of seeking to scapegoat migrants for pressures on schools and public services.

The Falkirk event took place against a charged local backdrop. The town has been the scene of repeated stand‑offs outside a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers, where anti‑immigration protesters and anti‑racism campaigners have regularly faced each other across police lines. Farage’s speech echoed many of the themes raised at those demonstrations, raising concerns among opponents that his party is normalising far‑right talking points.

Reform is also under scrutiny following a Guardian investigation into Farage’s school days, in which former contemporaries alleged repeated racist and antisemitic conduct. Farage and his aides have strongly denied the claims, insisting he never acted with malice or targeted people because of their background. A separate row over racist social media posts by Ian Cooper, a former Conservative council leader who briefly joined Reform before having his membership revoked on vetting grounds, has fuelled criticism from campaigners and broadcasters that the party is fostering a “toxic” environment online. Reform has not publicly condemned Cooper’s language.

Offord dismissed suggestions that joining Reform meant aligning with racism, insisting the party was “speaking for people who feel ignored” on immigration, crime and economic decline. He attacked his former party as “timid” and directionless, portraying his move as a principled break with a Conservative Party he said had lost touch with its voters after years of internal turmoil and leadership changes.

A financier from Greenock and a long‑standing unionist campaigner, Offord was a major Conservative donor and served as Scottish Conservative treasurer before being elevated to the Lords by Boris Johnson in 2021. He became a junior Scotland Office minister later that year and went on to serve as a minister for exports in the Department for Business and Trade. His appointment to the upper chamber was criticised at the time by opposition parties as an example of cronyism because he had failed to win election to Holyrood earlier that year.

Offord told supporters he would “return” his peerage – a colloquial description of his stated intention to resign from the Lords under existing rules – to seek election to the Scottish Parliament in May 2026. Reform has not yet confirmed which constituency or list he will contest.

The defection is a significant boost to Reform’s push north of the border, where recent polling has suggested the party could overtake Labour and the Conservatives to become the second‑largest at Holyrood. A Survation survey for IPPR Scotland in October put Reform on 22% of both the constituency and regional list vote, behind the SNP but ahead of Labour and the Conservatives, and modelled the party winning around 22 seats.

Reform has already attracted a number of Scottish Conservative defectors, including the former MSP Graham Simpson and several councillors, and is seeking to position itself as the main unionist challenger to the SNP. Nationally, Farage’s party has five MPs and is polling competitively with, and in some surveys ahead of, the Conservatives.

Swinney responded to the Falkirk event by reiterating his defence of immigration as economically essential for Scotland’s ageing population and by urging voters not to “give in to fear and division”. Senior Conservatives in Scotland, meanwhile, sought to play down the impact of Offord’s move but privately conceded that losing a well‑connected donor and former minister to Reform represented a serious blow ahead of the 2026 contest.