Edinburgh financier and ex-Tory minister in House of Lords looks set to become Scottish leader of Nigel Farage's Reform UK party
Malcolm Offord is not exactly a household name, but he was in the headlines at the weekend after being unveiled as Nigel Farage's latest recruit from the Conservatives.
And now the 61-year-old financier and millionaire, who served as a junior minister in the House of Lords under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, is tipped to become Reform UK's leader in Scotland.
Lord Offord plans to give up his peerage to stand in next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
The lack of a Scottish leader is one of the factors which led some to doubt the seriousness of Reform's threat north of the border. Previous Tory defectors to Reform - high-profile Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr in January this year and MSP Graham Simpson in August - have not been touted for the position.
At one point, the party’s line was that Nigel Farage would lead the party in Scotland until after the outcome of the election in May. But one leading Reform source was quoted talking about Lord Offord at the weekend, saying: "Everybody knows he will become the Scottish leader. It's just about the timing.”
And Mr Farage welcomed him as "somebody who I think will have a transformative effect on our party here in Scotland".
Lord Offord wanted to stand for election to Holyrood for the Tories in Edinburgh Central when former Scottish leader Ruth Davidson was stepping down as MSP in 2021. But party activists instead selected Scott Douglas, then a councillor for Corstorphine/Murrayfield.
He did stand on the Lothian list in the 2021 election, but he was in the number five slot, giving him no chance of getting elected, despite a special endorsement from the party leadership urging party members to give him a top spot in the rankings.
It was then that Boris Johnson handed him a seat in the Lords. But that caused controversy and the Tories had to insist his elevation as Lord Offord of Garvel had nothing to do with donations totalling nearly £150,000 he had given to the party since 2007.
His announcement he will leave the House of Lords and stand for the Scottish Parliament suggests he is serious about his latest bid to become an MSP, though obviously nothing is guaranteed.