Reform UK is not looking for defectors in Scotland to overtake Scottish Labour, the party’s leader has said.
The party won 17 seats at Holyrood on Friday, making its first electoral breakthroughs in the Scottish Parliament.
Speaking to the Press Association on Saturday, Malcolm Offord said Reform’s job would be “challenging and scrutinising”.
We're happy with the 17 that we've got, we're going to work really hard in the Parliament
But with the party tied with Scottish Labour for second place, Lord Offord said he was not looking to add to his party’s ranks.
“No, we haven’t had any eye on that at all,” he said.
“We’re happy with the 17 that we’ve got, we’re going to work really hard in the Parliament.”
The party’s sole MSP in the last Holyrood session – Graham Simpson – came as a defection from the Tories, which dropped to just 12 seats.
Parties across the chamber have ruled out working with Reform, meaning the party could struggle to shape legislation or pass its own members’ Bills.
Asked how Reform MSPs could impact Holyrood, Lord Offord said: “Our job will be to be challenging and scrutinising, especially if we end up with an SNP alliance with the extremist Greens who are going to drive this country into poverty.
“We can’t have that, our job alone is a worthwhile job to be the challenger and the scrutineer of extreme policies coming to Scotland.”
The party will aim to “demonstrate to the Scottish people that what’s being done is bad for them”, which, Lord Offord said, would stand the party in good stead for the council elections next year and the next Holyrood poll in 2031.
“This is only the start,” he said.
The SNP continued its dominance at Holyrood, winning 58 seats on Friday as the runaway largest party, but the tally remained short of the overall majority First Minister John Swinney touted as the trigger for talks with Westminster on another independence referendum.
But the issue, according to Mr Offord, is a “dead duck”.
He said: “It’s not going to happen anytime.
“Their share of the vote just seems to be coming down and if you combine the SNP and Green votes, it’s less than a million now.
“Compare that to the indyref in 2014, it was 1.6 million votes – it just keeps going down.
“There’s no appetite for another referendum.”
The former Tory peer later told journalists he was “very confident” all of the 17 Reform MSPs elected this year would still represent the party in 12 months.
The party’s new MSPs met in Glasgow on Saturday, as a protest held by Stand Up To Racism was held elsewhere in the city.
Ahead of the march, Glasgow-based anti-racism campaigner Zamard Zahid said it offered a chance to “reject the hateful and divisive politics of Reform and the far right”.
Lord Offord told PA the protest going ahead showed “the beauty of this country”.
“You’re allowed to protest, you’re allowed to make your view, but the most important view given is the voters at the ballot box,” he said.
“That’s the most important protest, if you want to call it that, that’s how you protest in a democracy, you put your X in the box and we’ve had 383,000 people in Scotland come out and support Reform, that’s a big number.”