Tugendhat’s non-existent Scottish backer

Oh dear. Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has been rather excited about all the support he’s received from his counterparts north of the border. So far almost a third of the 31 Scottish Conservative MSPs have backed Tugendhat – and in his excitement to announce his latest supporters, the Tory contender’s team accidentally, um, fabricated one. Details, details…

Tugendhat’s lot put out a press release this morning celebrating two of his newest endorsements, only it quickly transpired that one of the politicians in question didn’t actually exist. Alexander Brown is not actually a serving MSP – despite multiple references to the unknown politician. Halfway through the press release, however, Tugendhat’s team switched to mentioning an Alexander Stewart instead – someone who is in fact a Scottish Tory MSP representing Mid Scotland and Fife. How interesting…

A whole 30 minutes passed before the Tory contender realised his mistake – Mr S wonders whether he possibly received a rather offended nudge from the real MSP – and a new readout was issued with the correct name.