Scotland

As the SNP conference weekend kicks off, another Scottish story is starting to take shape. It has emerged that detectives north of the border are now investigating allegations that a senior civil servant gave a false statement under oath to an inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations involving Alex Salmond. Edinburgh’s Court of Session was informed today that Police Scotland is now looking into the Scottish government’s head of cabinet, parliament and governance, James Hynd, as part of the investigation entitled Operation Broadcroft. Good heavens… Ex-SNP leader Salmond is taking legal action agains the Scottish government – with the former FM alleging ‘malfeasance’ by civil servants and seeking ‘significant damages’. Salmond claims

Something interesting is happening in the Scottish Conservative leadership election, and while I appreciate you might be sceptical about the juxtaposition of ‘interesting’ and ‘Scottish Conservative’, there is a certain dynamic at play. Unlike the race for UK Tory leader, the contest is not between left and right, for there isn’t really a right to speak of in the Scottish Tory party. Nor is it a battle between reform and the status quo, for all three candidates are chirping incessantly about ‘change’. The real dynamic is insiders versus outsiders. Russell Findlay is not a central casting Tory I’ve written about this in an essay in the Mail today, but I

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

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

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 has launched his bid to be the next Scottish Tory leader as the party descends into a civil war over the propriety of the electoral process. The UK Conservative leadership race has thus far been a pretty staid affair. Not so the Scottish party, which is on the hunt for a new figurehead now that Douglas Ross is returning to the backbenches.  That’s not soon enough for some of his colleagues. He was already in the dog house after Aberdeenshire North and Moray East MP David Duguid was deselected by party HQ and his candidacy given to Ross. What’s worse, Duguid, a gentlemanly champion of oil workers and

All is not well in the Scottish Tory party. Now four of the six candidates have released a statement calling for the leadership race to be paused until they receive assurances on the contest’s ‘transparency and fairness’. The letter, signed by Murdo Fraser, Jamie Greene, Liam Kerr and Brian Whittle, is addressed to the party’s management board and comes in light of ‘disturbing claims’ about outgoing leader Douglas Ross. Oh dear… The Telegraph reported this morning that according to senior sources in the party, Ross wanted to ditch the leadership role over a year ago and coronate the current frontrunner Russell Findlay. Ross – who at the time was both