Former Tory leads Nigel Farage’s party to joint second place at Holyrood

As a Scottish Conservative candidate, Malcolm Offord failed in his bid to get elected to Holyrood five years ago.

Now, as the Scottish leader of Reform UK, not only is he an MSP, but his party are the joint second largest in the Scottish Parliament.

It represents a dramatic rise in fortunes for Nigel Farage’s party – who only had one MSP in the previous session at the Edinburgh Parliament, after the defection of former Scottish Tory Graham Simpson.

Like Mr Simpson, Lord Offord joined Reform from the Conservatives, with his defection announced in December 2025. At the time, Mr Farage declared that the former Tory UK government minister would take the party in Scotland “to a new level”.

A little more than a month later, Lord Offord was confirmed as Reform UK’s Scottish leader by Mr Farage – who stressed at the time he was still the party’s “ultimate leader”.

Lord Offord – who resigned his membership of the House of Lords when his appointment as Scottish leader was announced – said Mr Farage had just “come out and honestly said what we know really happens in the Labour Party, what really happens in the Conservative Party”.

At the time he added: “Honesty is always the best approach.”

That honesty also applied in a TV election debate, where, in an exchange with Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer, Lord Offord told voters he had “six houses, five cars and six boats”.

The Reform UK Scottish leader recalled he had been £2,000 in debt when he went to London to work 40 years ago, but said he was “full of ambition” and had been successful.

“In a 40-year business career, I’ve employed hundreds of thousands of people and paid £45 million in tax,” the Greenock-born politician added.

He became a Conservative Party donor while working in the finance industry, and in 2021 he was made a life peer by then Tory prime minister Boris Johnson.

In government he served as a minister in the Scotland Office, and also later as a business minster, holding posts under the premiership of Mr Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

But he later denounced his former party as lacking in policies and ideas, saying he had joined Reform to “remove this rotten SNP Government” and to seek to “restore Scotland to being a prosperous, proud, healthy and happy country”.

He was forced to apologise and deny allegations he was homophobic after details of a joke he made about the late pop star George Michael at a rugby club dinner in 2018 emerged, with the former financier claiming his remarks were a “clumsy mistake”.

During the election campaign, he spoke about his “love” for the Deacon Blue song Dignity – saying its appeal was not just the words and music, but “the message of working hard and saving up to make your dreams come true”.

Deacon Blue said that it “appals” them for Lord Offord to quote their iconic hit.