Overview
- Nigel Farage introduced Lord Offord as Reform UK’s newest recruit at a rally in Falkirk, confirming the party’s first peer in the House of Lords.
- Offord said he will contest the Scottish Parliament elections in May as a Reform candidate and pledged an intensive campaign in the months ahead.
- He previously donated more than £150,000 to the Conservatives, was made a life peer by Boris Johnson in 2021, and later served as a minister for exports under Rishi Sunak.
- The Scottish National Party condemned his 2021 appointment as cronyism at the time, a charge Johnson rejected as he defended Offord’s credentials.
- His move extends a run of defections from the Conservatives to Reform, with recent joiners including Jonathan Gullis as well as former Tory MPs Chris Green and Lia Nici.