Reform's Scottish leader defends Labour deal claim

Reform UK's Scottish leader says he is standing by his claim that Scottish Labour's leader told him he wanted to work together against the SNP.

Malcolm Offord made the allegation during a leaders debate on Channel 4 after Anas Sarwar accused Reform of racism and criticised comments made by one of the party's candidates.

Offord said Sarwar's remarks did not square with him "bouncing up to me" at a previous event and "saying we need to work together, Reform and Labour, to remove the SNP".

Sarwar said the claim was "nonsense" and later described it as "a desperate lie from a desperate man" - but Offord told BBC Scotland that he stood by what he had said.

Reform's Scottish leader had been criticised during the debate over his party's billboard adverts which showed a small boat with asylum seekers under the slogan "Scotland is at breaking point".

SNP leader John Swinney said the poster had "incited tension and division", but it was defended by Offord

"The idea of that billboard was to say illegal asylum seekers, they come into England, but they come to Scotland, they come to Glasgow," he said.

"What Reform is doing is honestly reflecting the views of local Scottish people, especially in our working class communities who feel they are being pushed to the back of the queue."

Sarwar said Reform had previously spent thousands of pounds on adverts questioning his loyalty to his country.

Accusing the party of racism, he said one of Reform's candidates wanted to deport his children and repeatedly asked: "Where do you want them to go, Malcolm?"

Offord replied that Sarwar's remarks did "not square with you coming up to me at the start of this campaign, bouncing up to me in Paisley Town Hall and saying we need to work together, Reform and Labour, to remove the SNP".

Sarwar described this as "nonsense" during the debate, and afterwards said: "Let me be unequivocal: no stitch-ups, no deals, no backroom chats, no back-channel contact with Reform.

"I only want one deal, and that is with the people of Scotland."

The SNP said a "grubby deal" had been exposed and claimed Sarwar would "happily work with Reform if it gave him a whiff of power".

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Alex Cole-Hamilton described talk of a deal between Labour and Reform as dirty tricks.

Cole-Hamilton ruled out any deal between his party and Reform, describing them as "part of the problem".

Earlier in the debate Offord sided with US President Donald Trump after he again urged the UK to "drill, baby, drill" and extract more oil and gas from the North Sea.

Referring to UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, the Scottish Reform leader said: "I would agree with Donald Trump on this – drill, Mili, drill is what I would say."

He added: "In terms of energy, we account for less than 1% of global emissions, right now it is more of a priority we have safe and affordable energy."