Who is Reform UK's Scottish leader Malcolm Offord?
BBCMalcolm Offord: The basics
Age: 61
Education: Greenock Academy, Inverclyde, and Edinburgh University
Family: Offord was one of six children
Who is Malcolm Offord?
Lord Offord was born in Greenock and described his upbringing as lower-middle class.
He later studied law at Edinburgh University.
Offord recently told the BBC's Scotcast that he lived on a diet of Scotch pies and beans, and that he still eats a Scotch pie most days.
After leaving university, he became a banker in London. He went on to found the investment firm Badenoch and Co.
Offord was given a life peerage by Boris Johnson in 2021.
Immediately after he entered the House of Lords, he became a Conservative minister in the Scotland Office.
He defected to Reform UK in December and was appointed the party's leader in Scotland the following month.
What was his route into politics?
Offord's political career began during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, when he served as director of the Vote No Borders group.
The group attracted some 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.
Offord donated significant sums to the Conservative Party and ran for them in the 2021 Holyrood election, but failed to win a seat.
But later that year he was appointed to the UK government after being given a peerage.
His brief was later expanded to include responsibilities in the Department for Business.
Offord was still a Conservative spokesperson in the House of Lords and the serving Treasurer of the Scottish Tories when Nigel Farage unveiled him as a defector to Reform UK.
Offord has since stepped down from the Lords, though his peerage cannot be officially revoked without an act of parliament.
What are his key pledges?
- Cut income tax
- Reform the NHS
- Reduce welfare spending
- Shut down quangos - public bodies operating at arms-length from the government, such as health boards
- Make Scotland the most successful part of the UK
