Russell Findlay has a tough job. His party is not on track for a good 2026 election and the new Scottish Tory leader needs to figure out quick how to present Scots with a vision worth voting for come the Holyrood poll. He must prove the Scottish Conservatives are not only different from the soft-left SNP, Labour and Lib Dems – but also different from the surging Reform UK, which according to today’s Survation poll is neck-and-neck with the Scottish Tories despite having no leader, no policies and no campaign.
Enter Findlay’s ‘common sense’ agenda, which this week turned to tax. The centrepiece of the proposal was an income tax cut, in which he proposes extending the range of the 19p ‘starter rate’ from its current limit of just under £15,000 per year to over £43,000 per year – effectively abolishing the 20p ‘basic rate’ and 21p ‘intermediate rate’ bands. An interesting proposal.
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