Now Ross brands Scottish Tory colleagues ‘calculating b**tards’

As the UK Tory leadership contest rumbles on, north of the border the Scottish race is hotting up. Last week saw a rather dramatic few days in which four of six contenders called for the competition to be paused and the party’s deputy leader quit her post after ‘disturbing claims’ about outgoing leader Douglas Ross emerged. It transpired that Ross attempted to shuffle out a prospective parliamentary candidate so that he could be selected to contest a Westminster seat in the 2024 election. The Telegraph report also claimed that the Scottish Tory leader wanted to ditch the top job over a year ago – and instead coronate current leadership candidate Russell Findlay. But despite the negative press, Ross remains pugnacious…

During an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the outgoing leader was quizzed on his Holyrood colleagues – and he was pulling no punches. Asked whether one had to be a ‘calculating b**tard’ to be a Tory party leader, Ross appeared to hit out at some of the six leadership contenders, replying: ‘I was going to say some of the ones that won’t be leader of the Scottish Tories are calculating b**tards.’