Douglas Ross: ‘The Scottish Tories could have a really good general election’

The SNP wasn’t the only loser last week when Labour triumphed in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election with a 20 per cent swing – the Scottish Conservatives also had reason to feel short-changed. Their vote collapse was so dire that Tory candidate Thomas Kerr only won 3.9 per cent and lost his £500 deposit. While the party insists that the Rutherglen result is not representative of Scotland more generally, it shows the tricky terrain the Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross faces.

‘You’re going to see Conservative gains at the next general election,’ he insists, when we met in Manchester at the Conservative Party Conference. Sheltering from the rain in a fringe event tent, Ross explains why an SNP implosion could work in his party’s favour. ‘The most recent poll showed us picking up a couple of seats in Scotland and I think that’s not what people are expecting at the moment,’ he says.