Sarwar brands Offord a poisonous little man after Scotland debate clash

Anas Sarwar turned a live debate into a fight over Scotland’s next governing math after Malcolm Offord alleged that Labour had quietly looked for help from Reform UK to oust the SNP. Sarwar immediately dismissed the claim as “absolute nonsense” during Channel 4’s Scotland Decides debate in Glasgow, then escalated it afterward by calling Offord “a desperate lie from a desperate man.”

The clash landed with three weeks left before polling day on 7 May 2026, and it went beyond a personal insult. Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, said Sarwar had approached him at Paisley Town Hall in December and suggested they should “work together” to “remove the SNP” from power. Offord said he stood by that account when challenged after the debate and again to BBC Scotland.

John Swinney moved quickly to turn the row into a warning about opposition-party fragmentation. The First Minister used the exchange to suggest Labour and Reform could work together after the election, while the SNP accused Sarwar of being in “cahoots” with Nigel Farage’s party. Sarwar rejected any prospect of a pact, insisting there were “no stitch-ups, no deals, no backroom chats, no back-channel contact with Reform,” and that he only wanted “a deal” with the people of Scotland.

The dispute is politically potent because the numbers in the race make every anti-SNP vote matter. A YouGov MRP published on 10 April projected the SNP on 67 seats, Reform on 20 and Labour on 15, with 89% of simulations showing an SNP majority. An Ipsos Scotland Political Pulse survey from late March put the SNP on 39 percent of the constituency vote, with Labour and Reform tied on 15 percent.

Offord also defended Reform’s “Scotland is at breaking point” billboard, which showed a small boat of asylum seekers, saying it reflected concerns about illegal asylum seekers and the views of local working-class voters. Swinney said the poster had “incited tension and division.” Sarwar, meanwhile, attacked Reform as racist and said one of its candidates had wanted to deport his children, using the debate to frame Reform’s politics as poisonous.

The argument now cuts to the heart of Scotland’s fragmented opposition. If Labour cannot persuade voters it is the only credible alternative to the SNP, while Reform keeps climbing as a protest force, the anti-SNP vote may split in ways that reshape coalition calculations long after the campaign’s insults fade.