Police Scotland slaps down Reform leader over Glasgow 'street patrols'
Malcolm Offord said a group he joined on patrol acted with the permission of the police
Police Scotland has rejected a suggestion from the Scottish leader of Reform that a "street patrol" he joined in Glasgow city centre was endorsed by the force.
Malcolm Offord said he had spent time with a group of men who patrol at weekends between 9pm and 2am to keep women and girls safe amid concerns over immigration.
He said the group - North2South - acted “in cooperation” with the police. "They are not vigilante groups,” he told journalists. “They are not armed.
"They are a bunch of volunteers wearing hi-vis jackets saying North2South on the back, with police permission, who are on the streets to help just make sure that there's an element of safety and security particularly for women and girls.”
He added: “The police themselves say they are underfunded and overstretched.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Keeping people in our local communities safe is our priority and officers will always respond appropriately to any crimes reported.
"We do not endorse, condone or encourage any group's activity. We do not work with them or their members, nor advise them how to carry out their activities.”
Scottish Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill called it “a bizarre and downright dangerous intervention from the clueless Lord Offord”.
Speaking at a press conference in Greenock, Mr Offord, who was made a life peer in 2021 but previously announced his retirement from the Lords, said Glasgow is "not as safe as it used to be" and the city centre had been “hollowed out”.
He said the group he joined on patrol “just feel the atmosphere has changed in Glasgow in the last five years with a lot more men basically from foreign lands, not speaking English as their first language”.
Mr Offord said: "Our cities and towns need a bigger police presence. But in the absence of that, we've got some concerned parents doing something that they think is of value to their community.
"It's not a vigilante group. They don't have an agenda. They just want to keep their people safe."
He insisted the police “know about it”, adding: “It's done in co-operation with the police. But that didn't exist five years ago. That's all I'm saying, that is an issue.”
Mr Offord spoke of a recent visit to a homeless shelter in Glasgow, where he said only two out of 30 beds were occupied by a local person.
The Reform UK Scottish leader used also the press conference to announce he will be standing in Inverclyde at May’s election, a constituency which includes his native Greenock.
He said: “The question then came when I joined Reform, where would I stand? For me, there was only one place I wanted to do that, to come here, back to Inverclyde, for a number of reasons.
“Obviously, it’s my hometown, but also because in a way Inverclyde is almost like a microcosm of Scotland and the issues we need to deal with in Scotland as a whole, we need to deal with in Inverclyde.
“It’s almost like if we can solve one, we can solve the other.”
Mr Offord, who is a multimillionaire, defected to Reform from the Conservatives in December and was unveiled as the party’s new Scottish leader by Nigel Farage in January. He served as a Scotland Office minister and business minister in the previous Tory administration at Westminster.
He said Reform will unveil its full list of Holyrood candidates on March 19.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.