The leaders of the six largest parties in Scotland clashed in an STV debate on Tuesday.
Reform UK have “poisoned” the campaign for the Holyrood election, First Minister John Swinney has said as he urged Malcolm Offord to apologise.
The Reform UK leader said he would “not apologise” for talking about “real issues”.
The pair clashed during the STV debate on Tuesday evening, with Mr Swinney accusing Reform of holding “racist, intolerant and homophobic views”.
“Lord Offord, you want to cut taxes for the rich, your party leader Nigel Farage wants to privatise Scotland’s NHS, you want to deport thousands of highly skilled workers from Scotland,” the First Minister said.
“You and your party have poisoned this campaign with racist, intolerant and homophobic views.
“Will you take the opportunity of this debate to apologise for how you’ve soured this campaign?”
Responding, Lord Offord said: “Absolutely not – I will not apologise for going on the record and saying, honestly, what the people of Scotland are concerned about – the real issues.”
Perhaps Lord Offord’s most animated moment of the night came in his defence of his party’s plans to cut tax.
“We want to cut taxes for working people who are being dragged by your government… into higher tax bands where they do extra hours, they then suffer benefits being withdrawn, where they have marginal tax rates of 80%.
“We want to support workers.”
He went on to tell the audience Reform does not support privatising the NHS, adding: “There is nothing racist in talking about the fact people in this country, in their communities are feeling concerned and scared.
“I am all about community cohesion and we don’t have that in our communities.”
The First Minister said people in Scotland are “terrified” by Reform, but the party leader responded: “I am reflecting back what ordinary, decent Scots are saying, they feel ignored and gaslighted by the middle class parties.”
Lord Offord also spoke about the extent of his wealth in an exchange with Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer.
After laying out his background, the Reform leader said: “I went to London 40 years ago with £2,000 in debt and full of ambition – I worked hard, and I was successful.
“Today, I own six houses, five cars and six boats.
“In a 40-year business career, I’ve employed hundreds of thousands of people and paid £45 million in tax.”
He added that his intention was not to “boast”, but to ask if the Greens would want more or less people like him in Scotland.
“Fewer people like you,” Mr Greer said.
“I think it’s worth, at this point in the debate, pointing out that there are three times as many holiday homes and empty properties in this country as there are homeless children.
“You don’t need six homes, you don’t even need two homes, everybody just needs a home to live in.
“Surely, if we’re to tackle the housing crisis, the super rich, elite individuals like you should be giving up some of those homes so that people who desperately need a roof over their head actually had somewhere to live.”
