Reform UK ‘in it to win it’ at Holyrood election, leader Lord Offord declares

Reform UK are “in it to win it” at Holyrood, the party’s Scottish leader declared, with Lord Malcolm Offord predicting his party could win a number of constituencies in next month’s election.

Despite never having been an elected politician, he said he wanted to be Scotland’s next first minister.

The former Conservative UK government minister, who gave up his seat in the House of Lords when he became the Scottish leader for Nigel Farage’s party, insisted he “wouldn’t be here otherwise”.

Lord Offord declared: “I’m in it to win it. I believe I’ve got the ambition to do it and I’ve got the vision to do it. So yes, I want to be first minister.”

Speaking to the Press Association he added: “I’ve not been elected before, but I have been around politics for five years, I’ve seen people do it well and I’ve seen people do it badly.”

It came as he attacked Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay for having “no ambition to form a government”.

He was also critical of SNP first ministers Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney, as well as successive prime ministers at Westminster, claiming there was “managed decline in both London and in Edinburgh”.

Lord Offord said: “When you look at the three prime ministers that I served under in government, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, it’s not a good track record at all I’m afraid.

“And now Keir Starmer is not covering himself in much glory.

“And then you have got Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney. It’s not a great example.

“I genuinely feel that we have got managed decline in both London and in Edinburgh, it’s just status quo.

“And I think we need to be more ambitious than that.”

The Scottish Reform leader, however, said that Alex Salmond had been a “good first minister”, adding that the former SNP leader had “understood business and he was ambitious for Scotland”.

Lord Offord, who worked in finance before going into politics, stressed: “I disagree with him on independence, but I admire the fact he understood the fact that if you are going to make Scotland independent you need to have a successful economy, so I admire him for that.”

Asked about his party’s UK leader, Nigel Farage, he said that he is “allowing Reform Scotland to find our own voice”.

Lord Offord stressed: “We’ve got our own candidates, our own manifesto, we’ve got our own programme for government in Scotland and we will pursue that as Reform Scotland.”

His party is  looking to “challenge the cosy consensus”, he insisted, saying that for more than 25 years of devolution Scots had had the “same old face, same old nothing changes”.

He added: “I think the public are saying ‘come on, Holyrood is not actually working for Scots, it could do a lot better’.

“We’re new kids on the block and we are saying Holyrood needs to change, it needs to be performing better for Scottish people.”

This message, he said “threatens the establishment” – as he accused rival parties of talking about Reform, rather than their policies.

His comments came in a campaign where Lord Offord had to apologise for comments he made at a rugby club dinner in 2018, while more recently he reportedly spent the Easter weekend yachting rather than taking part in the election.

But he said: “There are going to be some bumps in the road for a new party.”

Responding to critics, he stated: “Everyone is talking about Reform. The other parties spend their whole time talking about Reform. I wish they would spend more time talking about what they’re going to do for Scotland.

“We spend all our time talking about policies, and all they do is talk about us.”

While he accepted polls show Reform as being unlikely to win the May 7 ballot, he said the indication that his party could come in second place behind the SNP is “realistic”.

However, he stated: “The pollsters are only saying we will get MSPs from the list. The challenge for us with less than four weeks to go is can we win constituencies.

“At the moment no one thinks we will win any constituencies. I believe we can win constituencies.”

He refused to say which constituencies his party could win, claiming: “I don’t want to jinx it.”

But he insisted that in each of Holyrood’s eight regions “there are a couple of seats where we have got a chance”.

Lord Offord stressed: “We have ambition to win constituencies, which means we want to do better than people think.”

And with turnout at the last Scottish Parliament election at just 63.5%, and the belief that many voters are “a bit scunnered” with politics, Lord Offord believes his party could appeal to disenfranchised Scots.

He described the election as being the party’s “opportunity, to say ‘we are different, we are new, we are on the side of working people'” – saying that this had “not been factored in” to current predictions.

He added: “It’s difficult to call that, but if our call to arms works, if we say ‘come on out and vote, we’re really going to change this thing’ that’s where our opportunity comes from.”

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “Lord Offord is happy for Reform to field pro-independence candidates and refuses to rule out another referendum, so it’s little wonder someone so weak on the Union felt out of place in the Scottish Conservatives.”

Speaking for the Tories she added: “Unlike Reform, we will always stand up to the SNP’s efforts to break up the UK.

“The Scottish Conservative manifesto is full of credible, costed policies to reduce people’s bills and grow Scotland’s economy – unlike Reform’s, which was torn to shreds by experts within 24 hours.”