![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Lord-Offord.png\")
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.<\/p>\n
Lord Offord, who said he would renounce his peerage to stand for election to Holyrood next year, said his decision was \u201cnot personal\u201d but was in the interests of the country.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not kid ourselves that this mess was created by the Conservatives,\u201d he said, explaining how he was \u201cshocked and horrified\u201d by what he found in the Tory government. <\/p>\n
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 .<\/p>\n
\u201cTo Kemi and Alister I say it is not personal, but I have to put the country before party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Addressing the failure to get people into work, he said: \u201cThe best welfare anyone can get is a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a country that has lost its way economically, socially and even morally,\u201d 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 \u00a33 billion in the US.<\/p>\n
Mr Farage said he wanted people like Sir Jim to be investing that sort of money in the UK.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie MSP said: \u201cThis defection proves what we already know, Reform aren\u2019t even Tories in disguise anymore, they are just Tories \u2013 the same Tories that broke the immigration system, collapsed the economy and left working Scots to pay the price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t change \u2013 it\u2019s the same failed politicians and failed ideas trying to divide our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2026 more follows<\/p>\n
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