Offord criticises ‘fake outrage’ over joke he admits was ‘probably’ homophobic

Reform UK’s leader in Scotland has hit out at “fake outrage” over a joke he made about late pop star George Michael that he accepted was “probably homophobic”.

Malcolm Offord said he has had a “huge amount” of support from the public after details of the remarks – made at a rugby club dinner in 2018 – emerged this week.

The joke was made public as campaigning got under way ahead of May’s Scottish Parliament election, with Lord Offord coming in for widespread criticism from other parties for the remarks.

Speaking on Friday, he said: “The fake outrage on this has been quite astonishing in the media.”

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme: “I have had a huge amount of public support from people on this, ‘you told a bad joke and you apologised for it Malcolm, what is the big deal?'”

He went on to highlight the behaviour of former SNP council leader Jordan Linden, who was this week found guilty of five sexual assaults against young men, and former Scottish health secretary Michael Matheson, who stepped down from the post after a row over his iPad charges.

Lord Offord claimed: “You might have thought based on what we have heard in the last week I was guilty of something serious, like for example sexual assaults against five young men, or maybe I had tried to defraud the taxpayer for £11,000 for my iPad bill.”

He added: “Can we just get real on this.”

Asked if his joke was homophobic, he said it “probably was”, adding: “It was a mistake.

“I don’t have any issue with homophobia, I’ve got a lot of gay friends.

“It was an error of judgment, sometimes one does that, particularly when you are a private individual.

“Obviously when you are in public office it is a higher standards and we are all learning on the way.”

He stressed the comments were made eight years ago, at a private event, before he became a politician.

The former Tory government minister – who defected to Reform UK last year – added: “We have all said things we regret and the important thing is what you do about it.

“What I did about it was apologise and make amends.”

He said he had made a “very public apology” to the rugby club and donated “in the order of” £2,000 to Kings Cross Steelers, which is said to be the “world’s first gay-inclusive rugby union club”.

Lord Offord added: “This happened eight years ago, it was not meant to cause any offence but it did cause offence, and I rectified that offence. All the people involved were satisfied with that.”

First Minister John Swinney has said Lord Offord is not fit to be an MSP, but speaking to the Press Association on Friday, Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said such a joke should not be a bar to office.

“I think it was an ill-advised joke, it was a number of years ago, I don’t think it should prohibit him,” he said.

Mr Findlay added that if one of his candidates made the same joke, he would “probably” sack them, but the final decision would be dependent on context.