Why is Douglas Ross standing for parliament again?

Not content with being a referee and leader of the Tories in Scotland, Douglas Ross seems bent on making himself even more unpopular with the punters. In doing so, he has alighted upon David Duguid, the Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan since 2017, who wrestled that once true-blue redoubt back from the SNP after 30 years of Nationalist incumbency. 

Duguid, who served as a minister under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, was preparing to stand again, under his seat’s new name of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, when he was struck by illness and spent four weeks in intensive care. He says he’s on the road to recovery and though he wouldn’t be able to go door-to-door before polling day, he expected to be the Conservative candidate, not least because local Conservative members had endorsed him as such. 

On Wednesday evening, however, the men in grey kilts came for him. Right on the cusp of nominations closing, meaning he had no chance to mount a fightback, he was informed by Scottish Tory higher-ups that he was being dropped as a candidate.