Lord Offord named as Reform UK's Scottish leader

Former Conservative minister Lord Offord has been named as Reform UK's Scottish leader.

The ex-Scottish Tory treasurer was unveiled by party leader Nigel Farage at an event in Fife.

He will lead the party into May's Scottish Parliament election, with Reform aiming to make a major electoral breakthrough north of the border.

Farage confirmed that he had held talks with Robert Jenrick, who had just been sacked from the Conservative frontbench for "plotting to defect", but denied his defection had been agreed.

A few hours later, Jenrick was unveiled alongside Farage as Reform's latest recruit.

Lord Offord - who is stepping down from the Lords and standing for election to Holyrood - said he saw the election as a "two-horse race" with the SNP.

He said the party had more than 12,000 members in Scotland and a "really talented group of candidates".

Lord Offord insisted the party would run a "positive" campaign after being questioned about a Reform UK social media advert featuring Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar that was branded "blatantly racist".

Farage said about 100 Scottish candidates had undergone vetting and training in London.

The Reform UK leader told reporters: "I think we can surprise ourselves with just how many votes we manage to garner in these elections."

He added: "A huge chunk of the Scottish electorate are looking for something different. And they're tired of the decline this country has seen under SNP government."

Farage spoke as UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch announced that she had sacked Tory shadow secretary Jenrick for "plotting to defect".

The Reform leader confirmed he had spoken with Jenrick and "a number of very senior Conservatives".

He said that for all of the talk of a supposed "Kemi bounce" a lot of Conservative senior politicians realise that the Tories will be "obliterated" in elections in Scotland, Wales and England in May.

Farage denied that he had signed a deal with Jenrick, but said he had "little doubt" that leaving the Conservatives to join Reform had been in the Tory frontbencher's mind.

Later on Thursday, the pair appeared at a news conference together in London.

Jenrick claimed the Conservative Party was "betraying" its principles and voters.

It was widely speculated that Lord Offord would be lined up to lead the party in Scotland following his defection from the Tories in December.

Several recent polls have suggested that Reform are on track to challenge Labour for second place behind the SNP in May's election.

The party has one MSP, Graham Simpson, who defected from the Conservatives in August.

Last month, Reform secured its first success at the ballot box in Scotland by winning a council by-election in West Lothian.

Lord Offord served as a Tory frontbencher between 2021 and 2024.

Until December, he had been the party's energy spokesman in the House of Lords.

The former minister announced last month that he intended to step down from the Lords and run as a Reform candidate for Holyrood.

As a life peer, Lord Offord's peerage cannot be relinquished. However, he has applied to retire as a member of the House of Lords from 30 January, signing his resignation letter on stage with Farage.

The Scottish Parliament is currently considering a bill - tabled by Reform MSP Simpson - that would bar MSPs from also sitting as MPs or members of the House of Lords.

Lord Offord, who founded investment firm Badenoch and Co, was director of the Vote No Borders campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

He entered frontline politics in 2021 after being named a life peer by Boris Johnson, having previously donated almost £150,000 to the Conservative Party.

He became Baron Offord of Garvel and was appointed as a junior minister in the Scotland Office.

Lord Offord also served as a minister of exports from 2023 until the general election in 2024.

As well as Farage, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Tory leader Badenoch also visited Scotland on Thursday.

Badenoch, who visited the Johnnie Walker experience in Edinburgh, said in a social media post that she had "clear, irrefutable evidence" about a plot for Jenrick to defect "in the most damaging way possible" to the Conservatives.

Badenoch told BBC News it had been a "good day" for the Tories and claimed Reform "don't care" about solving the UK's problems.

She said: "Bad people are leaving my party."

Responding to criticism from Labour ministers, she added: "The prime minister is so weak he doesn't need to worry about me. He needs to worry about the problems in his government."

Sir Keir, speaking at the SSE National Training Centre in Perth, told reporters a "flood" of "failed politicians" were defecting to Reform "because they know that the Tory party is a sinking ship".

Last week, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar acknowledged Sir Keir was unpopular and claimed the best thing the prime minister could do for his election prospects was to "be behind his door, at his desk, improving consequences and outcomes for people across the country".

Asked if his position could be at risk if Labour struggles in May, and if he was putting off voters in Scotland, Sir Keir said: "My job is to deliver for Scotland."

First Minister John Swinney said: "We've got a series of London politicians carrying out day trips to Scotland.

"But I think people in Scotland can see through it all."

He said the SNP government was cutting NHS waiting lists, supporting business and bringing down the cost of living.

Swinney added the Conservative Party was "falling apart as it wrestles with the threat from Reform".

Sarwar called Lord Offord a "charlatan" who was "pretending to be the great champion of working-class communities".

Green co-leader Gillian Mackay said the appointment "goes to show whose interests Reform really has at heart", adding: "They are the party of millionaires and the super-rich."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP claimed Lord Offord had "clearly abandoned any moral principle he ever had".

As journalists gathered in a Fife hotel for Reform UK's latest press conference, there was speculation the party could spring another surprise.

Reform was expected to announce its new Scottish leader, with Malcolm Offord, the former Conservative minister and peer, very much in the frame.

Lord Offord's appointment was no secret, but there were also murmurings about whether Nigel Farage would unveil another defection.

That didn't happen - instead the drama came via news from the Conservative Party.

As Reform's press conference got under way, and Farage introduced Malcolm Offord as the party's new leader in Scotland, the news dropped that Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had sacked Robert Jenrick from her shadow cabinet and removed the party whip.

Badenoch said she had been shown evidence Jenrick planned to defect.

That news rather overshadowed Malcolm Offord's appointment, dominating the questions from journalists.

Farage claimed he was "surprised", and denied any plot.

He confirmed however that he'd had talks with Jenrick.

Pressed by reporters, and clearly enjoying the development, Farage quipped he'd call Jenrick this afternoon.

Just a few hours later, he unveiled the former Conservative frontbencher as his party's newest recruit.