Douglas Ross: Conservatives facing ‘challenging’ general election

The Conservatives are enduring a “challenging” election, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has admitted.

The outgoing party chief, who will stand down after the 4 July vote, said a scandal over Conservatives allegedly placing bets on the date of the ballot was “unacceptable”.

However, he backed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision not to initially suspend those under investigation by the Gambling Commission, including two candidates.

Mr Sunak said on Monday his party was carrying out a “parallel” internal inquiry.

On Tuesday, a Conservative spokesperson confirmed candidates Craig Williams and Laura Saunders had been suspended.

Labour also suspended a candidate after being told the Gambling Commission had launched an investigation into him.

Mr Ross said the party’s issues during the election campaign had been “well rehearsed”.

He announced in the early stages of the campaign that he would step down at Scottish Tory leader following the vote.

It came after he was controversially selected to stand for the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat instead of David Duguid, who has been in hospital and was effectively de-selected.

“I’m the leader of the party and I take responsibility for how the party does and my own actions,” Mr Ross told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland.

Mr Sunak, who joined Mr Ross in Edinburgh on Monday to launch the Scottish Conservative manifesto, had been under pressure to suspend members under investigation from the Gambling Commission.

The commission has not said who it is investigating but so far the names of four Conservatives have emerged, including the two candidates.

Asked about the decision not to immediately suspend those under investigation, Mr Ross said it was important the inquiry was not “hindered”, adding: “People have a right to defend themselves.”

He told BBC Scotland News that if anyone was found to have “used their position or information they held to place a bet and gain financially from that then they should have no place in the Conservative Party”.

The party chief added: “I think the scandal has been an unacceptable incident in the campaign and I want the Gambling Commission to do their job as quickly as they can to look at all the details and come to a conclusion.”

The Conservative Party said following “internal enquiries” it could no longer support Mr Williams, the candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, and Ms Saunders, the candidate in Bristol North West.

“We have checked with the Gambling Commission that this decision does not compromise the investigation that they are conducting, which is rightly independent and ongoing,” a spokesperson said.

Scottish Tory deputy leader Meghan Gallacher welcomed the move and said the UK party had made the right decision.

Asked why people should vote for the Conservative Party in the wake the betting scandal, years of leadership turmoil and an error-prone election campaign, Mr Ross said: “We have made progress but there is more to do and the prime minister and the UK government have taken difficult decisions to turn our economy around and deal with the big decisions.”

He said that was in “stark contrast” to what is being offered by Labour and the SNP.

Mr Ross, who had been serving as an MP at Westminster and MSP at Holyrood, had u-turned on his decision to step down from the UK Parliament at this election.

But following criticism over his decision to stand, he has said it would no longer be “feasible” to do both roles, as well as being party leader.

Mr Ross – who is also a professional assistant football referee – has said he will quit as an MSP if he is successfully elected to Westminster.

His comments came after the The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) accused the Tories and Labour and of engaging in a “conspiracy of silence” and ignoring “painful choices”.

The think tank said the parties had “ducked” hard choices over public finances in their manifestos and warned it would be a “considerable surprise” if taxes were not increased over the next five years.

During a campaign visit to Dumbarton, Labour Treasury spokesperson Rachel Reeves said she was under “no illusions about the scale of the challenge” if she were to become chancellor.

She said an incoming Labour government would not be able to do everything it wanted as quickly as it would like, but that “we will start to turn things round”.

Ms Reeves cited plans for an immediate “cash injection” in health and education, which would have consequential effects on the devolved Scottish government’s budget.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told BBC Scotland News the SNP was “very conscious of the strain on our public finances and the challenges facing our NHS”.

She called for an end to “14 years of austerity” under the Conservative UK government, adding: “And our concern is that Labour are doubling down on Tory fiscal rules which will mean no new money for the NHS.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, speaking at an event in Kirkcaldy, ruled out increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT if his party entered government.

“We are going to ask people in the big banks, in the energy giants and in the social media giants to pay a bit more tax to cover the shortfall in our public spending,” he told BBC Scotland News.