THE millionaire Tory donor who was catapulted into the Scotland Office with a peerage is to take his seat in the House of Lords tomorrow.

Boris Johnson caused huge controversy last month when he made unelected financier Malcolm Offord a minister, bypassing two Scottish MPs who might have done the job.

Mr Offord, 57, tried to become an MSP at May's election, but failed to get the Tory candidacy in Edinburgh Central, then failed to get elected as fifth on the Lothians list.

The Prime Minister nevertheless fast-tracked him into office in a move the SNP said smacked of “rampant cronyism”.

The House of Lords has now confirmed that Mr Offord has been raised to the peerage as Lord Offord of Garvel, of Greenock in the County of Renfrewshire. 

He will be introduced tomorrow morning, at which point he will become an active member of the House.

Mr Offord was born in a tenement in Greenock’s Bank Street, a short distance from the James Watt docks, which include Garvel Island. 

He was educated at the state Ardgowan Primary and Greenock Academy schools, studied law at Edinburgh University, then went to London to work for the merchant bank Lazard.

He later moved back to Edinburgh, but his New Town flat was sold for £2.9m in 2018.

He now has an address in one of the most exclusive parts of Knightsbridge in London.

In 2014, Mr Offord set up the pro-union No Borders campaign to give ordinary people a chance to express their support for the Union, rather than leave it to just politicians.

According to Electoral Commission records, he has given the Conservative party more than £135,000 since 2007, as well as £2500 to Tory MP Michael Gove in 2019.

He gave the No Borders campaign another £20,000.

Mr Offord replaced Banff & Buchan MP David Duguid, who was sacked in one of the last acts of Mr Johnson’s September reshuffle.

He has already started work as a minister, and yesterday opened the Barclays campus in Glasgow, which is intended to bring high-skills graduate jobs to the city.

As part of the ceremony, he cut a ribbon with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Minister Malcolm Offord was delighted to attend the opening of the new @Barclays Glasgow campus earlier today.

Creating jobs and boosting economic growth, the Barclays campus will bring thousands of highly-skilled roles to Glasgow and offer unprecedented graduate opportunities. pic.twitter.com/rnBxxYmtlj

However the millionaire’s appointment is reported to have caused a headache for Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, whose party is targeting working class voters.

Elevating a rich party Tory donor to the Lords was seen to jar with that message.

It also presented an open goal to other parties. 

The Scottish Greens said appointing a Tory donor who had been rejected by voters was “a disgrace and sums up the contempt the Prime Minister has for Scottish democracy”.

The SNP added: “To hand out roles and peerages to party donors shows contempt for democracy. Boris Johnson has clearly failed to appoint someone within his own ranks and has now had to go searching for a financial associate.” 

Earlier this year the former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson was ennobled as Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, after her childhood home in Fife.