Now more Scottish Tory leadership candidates drop out

Back to Scotland, where the ongoing leadership contest for the next leader is heating up. Nominations for candidates close today, and any potential contender who hasn’t received the backing of 100 members won’t be able to progress to the next round. Frontrunner Russell Findlay hosted his official launch on Monday, and this morning his main rival Murdo Fraser is making his formal bid for the leadership. But in a rather interesting development, a number of MSPs who had initially thrown their hat into the ring have this week dropped out – and jumped ship to Fraser. And then there were three…

On Tuesday, ex-Olympian athlete Brian Whittle announced he had decided not to run and would be endorsing Fraser, who previously stood for the leadership back in 2011 and campaigned to separate the Scottish group from the UK party. And this morning, Liam Kerr and Jamie Greene were spotted in the front row of Fraser’s launch – before they promptly announced they too would be dropping out to endorse their favoured colleague.