Scottish Conservative peer defects to Reform UK

The former Conservative business and Scotland Office Minister, Lord Malcolm Offord, has defected to Reform UK.

He was unveiled by Nigel Farage at a rally at the Macdonald Inchyra hotel in Falkirk on Saturday.

Lord Offord was the serving Treasurer of the Scottish Conservatives and served on the Lords front bench from 2021 until 2024.

He told the rally he planned to stand down from the Lords and campaign as a candidate for Reform in the 2026 Holyrood elections.

Announcing his resignation from the Conservative party, Lord Offord said: "From today, for the next five months, day and night, I shall be campaigning with all of you tirelessly for two objectives.

"The first objective is to remove this rotten SNP government after 18 years, and the second is to present a positive vision for Scotland inside the UK, to restore Scotland to being a prosperous, proud, healthy and happy country."

Lord Offord, who founded investment firm Badenoch and Co, was made a life peer in 2021 under Boris Johnson.

He was also appointed as a junior minister in the Scotland office.

Lord Offord previously donated almost £150,000 to the Conservative party.

Following his peerage, he was made Baron Offord of Garvel, of Greenock in the County of Renfrew.

He also served as served as a minister of exports from 2023 until the general election in June 2024.

He was previously director of the Vote No Borders campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

The group attracted controversy after being forced to withdraw a cinema advert which claimed Scots would lose access to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in the event of a Yes vote.

The hospital complained about the message, saying it did not endorse the content and was not consulted prior to it being broadcast.

Lord Offord also stood as a Conservative list candidate for the Lothian region in the 2021 Holyrood election, but finished fifth and did not gain a seat.

Farage said he was "delighted" to welcome Lord Offord to Reform, describing his defection as "a brave and historic act".

He added: "He will take Reform UK Scotland to a new level."