DOUGLAS Ross was reportedly roasted by one of his MSPs during a political awards ceremony.
The Scottish Tory leader was attending the annual Holyrood magazine event alongside hundreds of guests in Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens when he was mocked by one of his colleagues.
As Tory MSP Maurice Golden took to the stage to collect the “Green Giant” award, he apparently couldn’t resist taking a dig at his boss in the audience.
Looking directly at his party leader, Golden told the audience he was glad Ross “wasn’t on the judging panel” as he wouldn’t have won the award if he was, according to the Daily Record.
The dig led to gasps from the scores of MSPs, staffers and corporate sponsors in the room.
A source told the newspaper that Ross “sat in silence” during Golden’s speech, with the incident apparently the “talk of the steamie” during the rest of the event.
Golden (above) previously served as the Scottish Tories' chief whip before becoming party spokesperson on the economy until 2021, when he was demoted to the back benches.
It comes after reports that many Scottish Tory MSPs are “frustrated” by Ross’s leadership and fear they face being “destroyed” at the next Holyrood election.
But, anonymous Tory sources told the Press and Journal that there was no imminent threat to his leadership.
One MSP told that paper: “My view is that it will be death by a thousand cuts rather than an immediate leadership challenge.
“I think it will come home to roost in 2026 because what you’ll have is a Labour vote that’s gone up, and that will destroy us on the list votes for Holyrood.”
They added: “There are a lot of people who are very unhappy – about the Conservative narrative, about the election strategy. It looks like we’ve given up on being the opposition.”
Under former leader Ruth Davidson, the Tories overtook Labour to become the main opposition in Holyrood.
However, recent polls have suggested that the Tories number of MSPs, currently 31, could be halved at the next Scottish Parliament election.
