DOUGLAS Ross has said he “had it out” with other Scottish Tory MSPs over leaks to the media as infighting within his party takes centre stage amid a leadership campaign.
Speaking to journalist Graham Spiers at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ross said there were “calculating bastards" in the Tory MSP group at Holyrood that did not want him to be leader – and claimed he knew who among them had been leaking attack stories to the press.
At the Fringe event, the outgoing Scottish Tory leader also:
- Declined to reveal the Scottish Tories’ membership numbers, despite having previously said his party would be “upfront” and publish them “during” a leadership election.
- Claimed he would have stepped down as Scottish Tory leader after the General Election anyway due to his party’s poor vote share.
- Accepted he had made “mistakes” as Scottish Tory leader, and said he had perhaps taken the position “too early” in his political career.
- Alleged that Scottish Labour had tried to convince him to lay down a motion of no confidence in the whole Scottish Government, not just former first minister Humza Yousaf as he ultimately did.
- Claimed he had been involved in UK government discussions which led the Tory-run administration to block Scottish gender reform.
- Insisted that if he had been aiming to oust Kathleen Robertson as a Tory General Election candidate in order to stand in her place, he could have done so.
- Said he would not have run for Westminster again if he’d known he was going to lose.
- And said he had been "hopeful" that a Celtic fan banner labelling him a "c***" would not be reported by the media.
In a discussion which largely focused on politics despite Spiers’s role as a sports journalist, Ross was variously challenged on the internal issues within the Scottish Tories.
In June and amid the General Election, Ross was forced to say he would step down as group leader after a contest to replace him amid unrest that he was standing for Westminster in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East in the place of David Duguid.
Ross had insisted it was a last-minute decision to U-turn and run for the London parliament, but reports last week said he had been plotting to stand in Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey for more than a year, but had been rebuffed by local candidate Kathleen Robertson.
Speaking to Spiers, Ross insisted that local party members had requested he check Robertson’s commitment to standing – and said that if he had been trying to oust her then he would have.
However, he accepted that some MSPs who did not want him to become leader would have had their views “strengthened” by the controversy around his conduct.
Asked if there were people within the party who were trying to undermine him, Ross said: “Of course, yes.
“I know we've got a Q&A where the audience will ask me questions, I'd quite like to ask some of these journalists who their sources are – just to confirm in my own mind the people that were doing the briefings.
“We are a small group and it's pretty obvious to me, when you look at the language and you look at where it's reported, who said what.
“You will put that to people and they will claim complete innocence and you have their ultimate loyalty and you know that's not true.”
Ross claimed that the Scottish Tory group would have private meetings and journalists would then be posting on social media about what was said “literally” within minutes.
“I hope it doesn't continue under my successor, but there's no guarantees,” he added.
Asked if he knew which of his team members were leaking to the press, Ross said: “Yes. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And some of these people will continue to deny it until their dying breath.”
And asked if he had “had it out with any of them face-to-face”, Ross said: “Yes. Yes, and [I] have been told that I've got it totally wrong, and the people advising me are the ones that [leaked].”
Asked how he avoid "becoming a bit paranoid”, Ross said: “Well, you don't. And I think if you speak to some of my close colleagues they will say at times I was a bit paranoid about things.”
He went on: “Ultimately, there's not an awful lot a leader can do if people are briefing against them and there's no way of proving it. If I could have proved what I know happened, then people would have been sacked.
“But ultimately, they were well defended because they were needed as the sources for the journalists in this room, which I also completely understand and respect.”
Asked if someone needed to be a "calculating bastard" to be the leader of the Scottish Tories, Ross said there were "calculating bastards" within the group who would never lead it.
Elsewhere, during the Q&A, Ross was asked if he would reveal how many members the Scottish Tories had, given that during the SNP leadership race in 2023 he had insisted his party would be “honest and upfront” and publish their figures during their next leadership contest.
Ross had earlier told the Fringe event that his MSP group had “sat back as Conservatives and enjoyed the SNP leadership contest” – which saw them pressure that party to publish their membership data.
However, Ross declined to reveal his party’s own figures.
Asked if he would do so, Ross said: “I don't know because I've not been involved in the process because I've stayed right away from that. I sit on the management board but I don't attend.”
Pushed on whether he knew the numbers, Ross said they may not be revealed at all if the Scottish Tory leadership contest does not go to a vote.
Each of the six candidates – Russell Findlay, Meghan Gallacher, Murdo Fraser, Brian Whittle, Jamie Greene, and Liam Kerr – need to secure 100 nominations in order to appear on the ballot. If only one candidate does so, then they will automatically become leader.
