Labour MP Martin McCluskey has accused Reform UK’s Malcolm Offord of attempting to lecture Inverclyde on deprivation after supporting a Conservative government which, McCluskey said, presided over rising poverty.
The Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West MP responded after Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, criticised the Labour leadership of Inverclyde Council and claimed the answer to deprivation should be greater enterprise and job creation rather than immigration.
Writing on X, McCluskey said:
“Malcolm’s previous party was in Government for 14 years and he had no problem supporting policies that saw poverty increase across Inverclyde.
“Labour – both in the Council and in UK – are fixing his mess.
“No wonder Reform came a distant third in Inverclyde in May.”
Offord was previously a Conservative politician and served as a Scotland Office minister under the previous Conservative government before joining Reform UK.
His intervention follows May’s Scottish Parliament election, when he stood for Reform in the Inverclyde constituency.
Official Inverclyde Council results show Offord finished third with 5,649 votes, behind Labour candidate Francesca Brennan on 8,876 and SNP winner Stuart McMillan on 14,193.
McCluskey, who was elected Labour MP for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West at the 2024 general election with 18,931 votes and a majority of 6,371, has continued to make jobs and household living standards central to his work in Parliament.
He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Energy and Jobs in July, with responsibilities including place-based economic strategy, the Warm Homes Plan, the Great British Energy Local Power Plan and the Office for Clean Energy Jobs.
The exchange highlights the increasingly sharp political contest in Scotland, with Labour arguing that investment in jobs, public services and local communities offers a more credible response to deprivation than Reform’s approach.
