MALCOLM Offord agreed to be interviewed on The National podcast today.
But Reform UK’s leader in Scotland cancelled at the last minute.
“Malcolm will no longer be able to attend the interview scheduled with The National due to the unfair coverage previously mentioned on your podcast,” they told us.
It comes after his colleague – Glasgow councillor and Reform UK candidate Thomas Kerr – also pulled out of our hustings after we highlighted how the party’s ratio of male to female Holyrood candidates was “unusually high”.
In a decision that was revealed to The National via a press release earlier this month, the former Tory claimed he had intended to attend our event “in good faith” but said he had changed his mind because the paper “allowed misinformation to spread wildly last week” with claims about his party’s stance on corporal punishment in schools.
Our editor, Laura Webster, accused Kerr – meanwhile – of rehearsing “a tired, Trumpian attack line” on journalists, and said the MSP hopeful should “develop a thicker skin”.
Following this latest no-show from Reform UK’s Scottish cohort, we thought our readers might want some insight into a few of the questions we would have asked.
Below is a very much non-exhaustive list:
- Thomas Kerr, one of your top Holyrood candidates, recently said homeless refugees will be sent to “rural” camps if Reform UK gains power in Scotland. He denied it was akin to concentration camps. It certainly sounds like it though?
- Follow-up: Now, Nigel Farage also said these camps would be quote “detention camps”. The move would also require emergency legislation to circumvent human rights laws. Do you believe in human rights?
- And lastly, you have repeatedly doubled down on your claim that Anas Sarwar said Reform UK and Labour should “work together” to “get rid of the SNP”. It has now descended into quite a bitter and public dispute between your two parties. Is this all for the cameras? Will Reform and Labour make a deal once the votes are safely counted post-election?
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