EXCLUSIVE: Malcolm Offord has been accused of hypocrisy over a piece in 2021 in which he said immigration should be promoted in Scotland.
The millionaire tipped to be Reform UK’s leader in Scotland called for a huge boost to immigration north of the border. Malcolm Offord said targeting three million British nationals in Hong Kong to live in Scotland would be a “great start” when he was a Tory.
He also said our population would be one million higher if we had secured a “proportionate” share of immigration into the UK. Offord, a financier, was appointed to the House of Lords under the Conservatives and became a junior Tory Minister in the Scotland Office.
He shocked colleagues in December by jumping ship to Reform and he intends to stand for Holyrood. Offord has also said he is interested in becoming leader of anti-immigration party’s Scottish wing, which is in line for sweeping gains at the Holyrood election.
But in an article for a think tank in 2021, Offord came out as being fiercely pro-immigration as a way of “turbo charging” Scotland’s economy. He wrote: “Promote immigration. If we had secured our proportionate share of UK immigration in the last 30 years, our population would be one million higher.”
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He added: “Our population is ageing and we need more taxpayers. Targeting the three million British Overseas Nationals in Hong Kong would be a great start.” Offord has since moved to the Right and said on BBC’s Question Time last month.
“The immigration issue we’re dealing with is something which is a worldwide issue, a European issue, and it’s coming at us fast and faster than we’ve ever seen before. If you think about the whole of the 20th century, one million people came to the UK. So far in the first 25 years of this century, it’s seven million people have come to the UK. That’s a lot of people.”
An investigative journalism website, the Ferret, has since described his claim about historical immigration as “mostly false”.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “This just further demonstrates that Reform is a party that will change with the wind to try and shore up support.
“The reality is, Nigel Farage and Reform don’t care about Scotland, they don’t understand Scotland, and they won’t deliver for Scotland.
“If people want to take a new direction, then Scottish Labour is ready and able to offer that at the Scottish Parliament election in May.”
Scottish Green co-leader Gillian Mackay said: “The hypocrisy is staggering. He has gone from promoting migration for the good that it does to acting as the figurehead of a party that scapegoats, attacks and demonises migrant communities.
“There are industries all over Scotland crying out for more workers and being denied them by a disastrous Brexit that Malcolm Offord’s party shaped and a broken and racist Home Office that isn’t fit for purpose.
“It’s long past time for Scotland to be able to build our own migration system based on compassion, respect and support for workers.”
An SNP spokesperson said: “It is clearer by the day that people like Lord Offord will ditch any of their principles simply because Farage tells them to.”
