Who is Reform UK's Scottish leader Malcolm Offord?

Malcolm Offord has packed a lot into a relatively short political career.

He only became a politician in 2021, but he's run for Holyrood, joined the House of Lords and served as a Conservative UK government minister.

And now he's the leader of a (different) Scottish party.

The polls suggest he has a chance of fronting the largest opposition group in Holyrood after May's election.

So who is Malcolm Offord? Or, to give him his full title, Baron Offord of Garvel.

Lord Offord was born in Greenock into what he describes as a lower middle-class family. One former colleague told me he's "massively proud" of being from the Inverclyde town.

He studied law at the University of Edinburgh before heading to London with "a £2,000 overdraft".

He turned that overdraft around, going on to have a career in banking and founding the investment firm Badenoch and Co.

His participation in politics increased during the independence referendum in 2014, when he campaigned for Scotland to remain part of the UK.

He was director of the Vote No Borders group during that campaign.

They attracted some controversy after being forced to withdraw a cinema advert which claimed Scots would lose access to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in the event of a Yes vote.

He donated significant sums to the Conservative party and ran for them in the 2021 Holyrood election, but he didn't win a seat.

That didn't stall his political career.

He was put into the House of Lords in 2021 by Boris Johnson and immediately became a UK government minister in the Scotland Office.

He expanded his ministerial experience by also serving in the Department for Business.

There were howls of criticism from opposition parties when he was appointed. Many believed a party donor was being handed a plum job, with the SNP calling it "cronyism".

But others – including Boris Johnson - saw his business credentials as an asset, insisting he had "a huge amount to offer" the government.

He was still a Conservative spokesperson in the House of Lords, and was the serving Treasurer of the Scottish Tories, when Nigel Farage unveiled him as a defector to Reform UK last month.

Most Conservatives I spoke to were surprised. They hadn't had him down as someone likely to make the jump to the new right-wing party.

And many felt betrayed by his manoeuvres.

When his defection was unveiled, one party insider messaged me labelling him a "treacherous snake".

Another figure I spoke to more recently described Lord Offord as diligent, bright and hardworking, and said it was a "disappointment" that he'd left the party that "gave him a leg up".

But Reform insiders were glad to see him join their team, feeling that they now had a figure with sufficient experience – both in business and government - to lead them north of the border.

Malcolm Offord intends to stand down from the House of Lords to focus on Reform's Holyrood election campaign.

He's always had a preference for going simply as 'Malcolm' rather than 'Lord Offord', though that grand title will technically remain as he keeps his life peerage.

Reform UK are well known for focusing heavily on immigration as a political issue, but that doesn't seem to be his primary concern.

He gave a lengthy speech to a crowd of Reform UK supporters in Falkirk after defecting, and the emphasis was on jobs, deindustrialisation and welfare.

Another person I spoke to who had previously worked with Lord Offord said a key motivator for him is holding the SNP to account. They thought that he felt he'd spent too long "sitting on the side lines" in junior positions for the Conservatives, when he wants to take John Swinney on directly.

It looks likely his new position will offer him that opportunity.

In a more practical sense, we'd expect Malcolm Offord to be taking the lead in televised debates before May's election and fronting the party's campaign here.

He'll also be heavily involved in recruiting party members to run as candidates.

Within little over a month, Malcolm Offord has gone from a fairly obscure Conservative lord, to a central figure in Scottish politics.

He may now lead Reform UK north of the border, but a key question is how much freedom he gets.

Is he Nigel Farage's man in Scotland? Or is he completely in the driving seat?

This looming election campaign should give us a good idea of what kind of leader the banker from Greenock plans to be.