Nigel Farage defends Reform UK’s Malcolm Offord over homophobic joke about George Michael’s partner
"This sort of po-faced, purism attitude to anything anyone's ever said when they're with a group of mates, frankly, is ridiculous," said Farage
By Callum Wells
Nigel Farage has defended Reform UK’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord after a homophobic joke he made at a rugby club dinner in 2018 resurfaced.
Offord apologised, this week, after details emerged of the remarks which referenced the late singer George Michael and his former partner Fadi Fawaz. They took place while he was chairman of the London Scottish rugby club.
Responding to the backlash, Farage said: “If we’re going to drum people out of public life for telling a joke at a boozy rugby club dinner that’s amongst friends, we’ll finish up with the dullest group of individuals, looking a bit like, sounding a bit like Keir Starmer.”
“This sort of po-faced, purism attitude to anything anyone’s ever said when they’re with a group of mates, frankly, is ridiculous” – Nigel Farage
He added: “When you take something as it is, yeah of course, it looks awful,” but argued there was context and that Offord had “probably regretted doing it”. Speaking at a campaign event in Sunderland, Farage also said: “This sort of po-faced, purism attitude to anything anyone’s ever said when they’re with a group of mates, frankly, is ridiculous.”
In a statement, Offord said he made the “crude joke” after having had “a bit to drink” and that it had been intended to be “funny through being edgy and shocking”. He said he had “instantly regretted it”, apologised to those present and later made a donation to an LGBTQ+ rugby club.
The issue was raised at Holyrood, where first minister John Swinney said Offord was “unfit” to be involved in Scottish politics.
A witness who attended the dinner described the speech as inappropriate. Ian Lewer told the Daily Record: “I had no idea who he was until then, I had not met or heard of him. The speech itself was a bizarre attempt to link the songs of the late George Michael to the works of Robert Burns, interspersed with clips of some of his famous hits accompanied by Offord’s questionable dancing.
“I was sitting next to a gay man and it was clearly an extremely uncomfortable experience for him” – Ian Lewer on Malcolm Offord’s homophobic joke
“The fact he was clearly intoxicated added another awkward dimension to the experience.
“But the worst part was a shocking story at the expense of Fadi Fawaz, George Michael’s partner at the time of his death.
“I was sitting next to a gay man and it was clearly an extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant experience for him. At the time I thought it pretty awful and indeed that was the feeling in the room. Even for a rugby club it was a crude, bad taste and insulting spectacle.”