JOHN Swinney has panned Reform UK’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord for spreading “disinformation” after he used his first question of the new Holyrood session to repeat claims which had already been called “entirely false”.
At First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Offord wrongly alleged that “the Labour-run Edinburgh City Council froze all social housing applications of homeless Scots”.
The Reform MSP went on: “Their applications were shelved while the council's housing stock was provided instead and in priority to asylum applicants.”
In reality, once a person has their asylum application accepted, they can lose their Home Office-provided accommodation and may become homeless. Homeless people, disabled people, and those at risk of violence are treated as higher priority for social housing than ordinary applicants.
As such, newly recognised refugees who have become homeless fall into a higher priority group than ordinary applicants, but they are not given priority over “homeless Scots” – as Offord claimed – and those “homeless Scots” have not had their applications “frozen”.
Edinburgh Council made this clear in a statement on Tuesday, saying that refugees “are afforded the same process, support, and respect as every other applicant” and “it is entirely false to say people in this position have been prioritised for housing”.
Responding to Offord’s opening question, the First Minister cited Edinburgh Council’s statement, noting that it had already made clear the Reform MSP’s claim “is not the case”.
Swinney added: “It is really important, at a time when our country is being affected by the type of disinformation that is put forward and has just been put forward to parliament, that we have clear and authoritative information put to parliament, because what I'm seeking to do is to bring this country together, and Lord Offord is trying to drive this country apart.”
Offord also called for the SNP to re-impose the “local connection rule”, which was scrapped in 2022 and has become a totem issue for hard-right anti-immigration campaigners.
The rule which had been in place said that Scottish councils could sometimes send a homeless person applying for social housing to another Scottish council area where they had stronger ties.
Now, a homeless person can seek help from any Scottish council, and the local authority generally cannot force them to move to another area because of a lack of local connection.
Speaking at FMQs, Offord asked Swinney to re-instate the rule, saying: “It's just a fact, the removal of the local connection rule has been exploited by the influx of substantial numbers of migrants to the detriment of our city's finances and cohesion.
“It cannot be disputed, it cannot be disputed that local people have been put at a disadvantage.”
Swinney responded: “Changing the local connection rule would not in any way, shape, or form address the issue that Malcolm Offord has put to me.”
False claim about BBC documentary
The Reform MSP also made a false claim about the BBC’s Disclosure documentary on Glasgow which last month sparked anger for allegedly portraying the city as a “backwater of drunks and stereotypes”.
On Thursday, Mike Grieve, the managing director of Glasgow’s famous Sub Club and chair of the Scottish Night-Time Industries Association, said the documentary had presented a “very distorted view of the city”.
At FMQs, Offord claimed that the situation facing Glasgow was due to “warped ideology thanks to years of virtue signalling from a succession of SNP First Ministers blinded by Scottish exceptionalism”, and noted the BBC documentary for having made this “clear”.
He falsely added: “Such was the confected anger directed at Mark Bonnar for drawing similar conclusions to Reform about Glasgow, he has chosen to take time off.”
The journalist behind the documentary was called Myles Bonnar, not Mark, and he has made clear that the time he took off work after it aired “was planned annual leave” and not, as had been claimed in the right-wing media, due to “wrath of cybernats”.
It was planned annual leave but whatever https://t.co/KYodGi8nwe
— Myles Bonnar (@MylesBonnar) August 25, 2026
Responding, Swinney defended the city of Glasgow.
He said: “About the Disclosure programme and the presentation of the city of Glasgow. I was in Glasgow a lot over the summer for the Commonwealth Games. I saw a city that was welcoming, that was inclusive, that was vibrant, that was creative and colourful.
“It was an epitome of a modern city in a modern Scotland, and I pay tribute to the people of Glasgow for the success of the Commonwealth Games in the summer.”
