Former Tory minister Lord Offord was today unveiled as the latest defector to Reform UK and declared his former party to be timid, parochial and full of career politicians.
Lord Offord, who said he would renounce his peerage to stand for election to Holyrood next year, said his decision was “not personal” but was in the interests of the country.
Speaking at the Inchyra hotel in Grangemouth after his switch was announced by party leader Nigel Farage, he said there was a need to rebuild the economy, but he blamed his former colleagues as much as the current Labour government.
“Let’s not kid ourselves that this mess was created by the Conservatives,” he said, explaining how he was “shocked and horrified” by what he found in the Tory government.
Lord Offord, Tory party treasurer, was sorry to walk away from current leader Kemi Badenoch and former Scotland Office minister Alistair Jack, with whom he was close.
“To Kemi and Alister I say it is not personal, but I have to put the country before party,” he said.
Addressing the failure to get people into work, he said: “The best welfare anyone can get is a good job.”
Mr Farage received standing ovations from a sold out event with 750 supporters cheering announcements to sort out immigration, the economy and social fabric of the UK.
“This is a country that has lost its way economically, socially and even morally,” said Mr Farage, who said he had met the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe to discuss the closure of the Grangemouth refinery and his plan to invest £3 billion in the US.
Mr Farage said he wanted people like Sir Jim to be investing that sort of money in the UK.
On immigration, he said that he often hears that Scots take different view to those in the rest of the UK. “Social attitude surveys show Scots are equally concerned,” he said. Referring to the survey he highlighted last week of children in Glasgow who did not have English as their first language, he added: “We welcome diversity but that survey showed what the SNP is doing to Glasgow.
“Who voted for this? Nobody.”
He said the SNP had put people who had arrived in Scotland illegally at the top of the housing list, above people who had paid into the system.
To loud cheers, he said: “It is wrong and it must end.”
There were commitments to end net zero and calls for a revival of the oil and gas industry by enabling more fields to be explored and scrapping tax penalties.
Reform UK says it now has 12,000 members in Scotland and is polling at between 20% and 22%, keeping it on course to be the second biggest party at Holyrood, ahead of Labour, with about 20 seats.
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie MSP said: “This defection proves what we already know, Reform aren’t even Tories in disguise anymore, they are just Tories – the same Tories that broke the immigration system, collapsed the economy and left working Scots to pay the price.
“This isn’t change – it’s the same failed politicians and failed ideas trying to divide our country.”
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