“We’ve used opposition to independence as a crutch,” says Shane Painter, the Scottish Tories’ youngest candidate in the recent, disastrous general election.
“People are fed-up hearing about the constitution,” he says. “They want to know what we’ll do about farming, housing, oil and gas.”
While the Tories at Westminster pick up the pieces after their crushing defeat on 4 July and select a replacement for Rishi Sunak, Scottish Conservatives are likewise choosing a new leader in a contest that ends on Friday.
The challenges facing Tories in Scotland are similarly existential, as the party wrestles with the diminishing threat of independence, growing support for Reform and the toxic legacy left by the outgoing leader, Douglas Ross.
Speaking to members across the north-east, one of the party’s strongholds in Scotland, there is consensus that the Tories must shift their focus from opposing independence after the SNP’s election rout. “I want a leader who will shout about what we stand for and put young people, women and BAME members at the top table,” says Painter, a recent politics graduate. “Meghan Gallacher is that person.”
Gallacher is one of three candidates vying for the top job. She was elected to Holyrood in 2021, still in her 20s, and became deputy leader a year later, taking her first maternity leave from the frontbench. She resigned as deputy last month after allegations emerged that Ross tried to install another candidate, Russell Findlay, as his replacement a year ago.
Findlay, who says he was unaware of this plot, is a former investigative journalist, current justice spokesperson, and popular Holyrood personality. He is widely considered the favourite to win, and has been endorsed by much-missed former leader Ruth Davidson.
Experienced backbencher Murdo Fraser, who stood against Davidson in 2011 on the prospectus of splitting from the UK Conservative party, is the third candidate.
One point of agreement among members supporting different candidates is unhappiness with the conduct of the campaign.
“The sniping and briefing against candidates has been disappointing,” says John Wheeler, former candidate for Aberdeen South. “We’ve not seen it in the UK campaign at all.” Wheeler is supporting Findlay because “he has a strong hinterland and looks at things differently from someone who has only worked at Holyrood”.
