“A two-horse race” New leadership shows Reform’s seriousness in Scotland 

Following the appointment of Malcolm Offord as the leader of the Reform party in Scotland, they are predicted to become Scotland’s second largest party in May’s Holyrood elections. But how has the former Conservative life peer risen to this level of prominence in Scottish politics?

Barron Offord of Garvel had a successful career in banking before being appointed into the House of Lords in 2021 by Boris Johnson and immediately becoming a UK government minister in the Scottish Office. This was his first official political position after first becoming involved in the “no” campaign during the 2014 referendum. Subsequently running as a Conservative candidate in the 2021 Holyrood elections, failing to win a seat. 

However, his appointment into the Lords was mired in controversy given his status as a Conservative party donor. Questions over cronyism and sleaze were raised with the sum of his total donations to the party being £150,000. 

Offord has stated his main aim in defecting to Reform UK in December 2025 was to oppose the SNP and hold Swinney accountable. He claims he was attracted to the “optimism” offered by Reform. He claims he has “a vision of a country that believes in the value of our home-grown talent, where working-age adults are encouraged, retrained and incentivised to return to work”.

Despite this, Reform UK Scotland have so far only announced a vague set of proposals, echoing Farage’s Trumpian rhetoric. The most detailed of these relate to migration, promising to leave the ECHR and deport dramatically more migrants. They also promise to end how Scotland is “over-governed” and “over-managed’, promising to cut income tax rates, realigning Scotland with the rest of the UK and then cut all rates by 1 percentage point. This would overwhelmingly benefit Scotland’s most wealthy the most, and does not come with a plan for where they would need to cut spending to cover the cost. The Scottish child payment? University tuition? Prescriptions? If Reform, and indeed Scots, want to cut taxes they should be aware of the cost. The party may well find that taking away such amenities is a lot harder than making vague statements about “ending woke”.

The millionaire former Tory donor has recently been announced to be the Reform candidate running for the Inverclyde seat, despite being previously predicted to run for the Dunbarton seat. This is the constituency of his hometown, Greenock, which Offord has referred to as a “microcosm for Scotland and its problems”.

However, attitudes towards the former Conservative peer are mixed, Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe has slated Offord over his views on Catholic schools: “We don’t need this man stoking division in our community. His views belong to the past”. 

His appointment as leader of Reform UK Scotland is likely a strategic move as a way to cement it as a serious party worthy of governing Scotland, rather than a light-weight populist force. This echoes the “de-demonisation” strategy of Rassemblement National (RN) in France, and many populist- right parties across Europe.

Reform’s rising position in the polls make it a serious force in Scottish politics. Right wing politics has made its way this side of the border. Reform is here to stay and progressives should be worried about the threat to a progressive Scotland.