Getty ImagesMalcolm Offord described his comments as "clumsy" Reform UK's sole MSP has said Malcolm Offord is fit to lead the party after he was accused of making a homophobic joke at a Burns Night dinner.
Offord apologised for the "crude" remark - made at a rugby club dinner in 2018 - but denied he was homophobic after it was reported this week by the Daily Record.
Graham Simpson, who defected from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform UK, backed his party leader, saying he had not seen the joke, adding: "I don't want to see it."
First Minister John Swinney, meanwhile, said Offord was "unfit" to be involved in Scottish politics.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Offord said he had made the "crude joke" after having had "a bit to drink" at the London Scottish rugby club while he was serving as chairman.
He said the remarks were about the late singer George Michael, who died on Christmas Day in 2016, "as I had been connecting his songs to Burns's works".
The joke referenced Fadi Fawaz, Michael's former partner, putting the singer's cremated remains into a curry, going on to make a crude reference to sex acts.
Reform MSP challenged on leader's inappropriate jokeThe Reform chief insisted the joke was intended to be "funny through being edgy and shocking", but said he had made attendees uncomfortable and had "instantly regretted it".
Offord added that he apologised at the time and made a donation to an LGBT rugby club.
Asked about Offord in the Scottish Parliament, Swinney told journalists: "He's unfit to be leader of any political party, unfit to be a member of the Scottish Parliament with views and attitudes like that."
He said that if the Reform leader said the same remark at a Reform UK event he suspected "lots of people would laugh and applaud, based on what I saw of the launch last week".
The first minister added: "So I think we've got to be really careful as a country about where we are heading, and Reform have got no part to play in it if they represent views of intolerance, prejudice and hatred of that type."
Ian Lewer, who was at the 2018 rugby club dinner with his wife, accused Offord of homophobia and said the incident made him and others "extremely uncomfortable".
He told BBC Scotland News there were "intakes of breath, gasping, and shock" when Offord made the comment.
Lewer, a former Conservative councillor who is standing for the party again this year, said: "It's one thing to say it, perhaps, to your mate down the pub when you've had a few too many beers.
"It's quite another thing to say it to 200 people in a very public speech when you're in a position such as the chairman of a rugby club."
Offord was inducted into London Scottish rugby club's hall of fame in May 2023.
Christopher Clannachan, policy and campaigns co-ordinator at the Equality Network, described his comments as vile, homophobic and racist.
"It's deeply worrying that they've come from the leader of a political party in Scotland," he told BBC Scotland News.
"Language like this from senior politicians trickles down into local communities and it gives people licence to then use that against marginalised people and there's absolutely no place for that in Scotland."
