New Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay promises to ‘change’ party

Newly-elected Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has said his party will change in order to “win back public trust”.

The former journalist comfortably defeated his Scottish Parliament colleagues Murdo Fraser and Meghan Gallacher in a ballot of party members.

The contest followed the resignation of Douglas Ross, who announced mid-way through the general election campaign that he was standing down as Scottish leader.

Findlay said he would seek to represent those who are “scunnered” with the “fringe obsessions of the Scottish Parliament” and feel that politicians do not understand the concerns of ordinary voters.

The new leader has been an MSP for the West of Scotland since 2021 and was the party’s justice spokesman.

His election came after an occsionally bad-tempered campaign, with complaints from one of the candidates about party interference in the contest.

A total of 4,155 people voted out of a total of 6,941 eligible party members, a turnout of 60%.

Findlay received 2,565 votes, Fraser 1,187 and Gallacher 403.

The new leader said the party must come together as “one united team” after what he called a bruising period.

“Let us start the hard work right now to win back public trust,” he said.

“I want to deliver the message to people across Scotland who do not feel that anyone represents them, who are scunnered by the divisiveness and fringe obsessions of the Scottish Parliament, who feel let down and failed by politicians of every single party, including ours, who think politicians are all the same.

“I feel that way – I get it, but I’m not the same.”

Findlay said the party would change under his leadership.

“We will work hard to earn your trust by doing things differently,” he said.

“We will be a voice for decent mainstream Scotland and the values of hard work, self-reliance, and value for taxpayers.”

He said voters wanted to see “common sense for a change” and that he was determined to deliver it.

The party’s new leader now faces a busy few days.

A ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of devolution is being held at the Scottish Parliament on Saturday, with Findlay due to make a speech before the King and Queen.

He will then need to head to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, where he will undertake a number of engagements.

Appointments of his frontbench team are expected to take place next week.

His opponents quickly congratulated him on social media.

Murdo Fraser said he looked forward to working with Findlay “to deliver the change that our party and Scotland needs”.

“Now is the time to unite as a team and move forward together,” he said.

Meghan Gallacher said the membership had “spoken resoundingly” and that the party had to unite ahead of the next Holyrood election.

However, SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said “the face of Tory politics in Scotland” may now have changed, but accused Russell Findlay of having no “desire to stand up for Scotland’s interests”.

He said: “The Tories head into their party conference totally divided and distracted by infighting.

“They have finally managed to swap out one of two lame duck leaders – but defeated Rishi Sunak is still pulling the strings until November, as what feels like the longest leadership contest in history rumbles on.”

Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Dame Jackie Baillie, said this year’s election had shown that voters wanted change.

“Rearranging the deckchairs will do nothing to stop the Tories’ downward slide after 14 years of letting Scotland down.

“The Tories still owe Scots an apology for gambling with families’ savings, crashing the economy and sending bills soaring while putting party before country.”

The leadership election was triggered when Douglas Ross announced he was standing down as leader following his decision to contest the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat at Westminster, replacing former MP David Duguid, who was recovering from a spinal stroke.

The decision angered MSPs and party members after Ross had previously said he would stand down from Westminster to focus on Holyrood.

He was forced to announce in the midst of the general election campaign that he would quit as leader after polling day.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme on Friday, election expert Prof Sir John Curtice said the campaign had been “fractious”, after a period when the party had seen its support falling away.

“We’re talking about a party that has got just over 12.5% of the vote in the general election, its worst performance ever,” he said.