SCOTTISH Conservatives have begun preparing the ground for a leadership contest, with potential candidates arguing for and against the party lurching to the right.
On Tuesday, Tory MSP Stephen Kerr claimed the Tories had been “pussyfooting around the leftist consensus” and should take an aggressive position against “shibboleths” like taxpayer-funded university fees which “are unworkable in the long term”.
In an article for The Telegraph, Kerr also claimed the Tories should be opposing free prescriptions and the unitary Scottish police force as he laid out his stall for a potential leadership bid.
However, writing for The Times, backbencher Jamie Greene said there was “little appetite for a reactionary lurch to the right in Scotland”.
Greene said that “noindyref2” could no longer serve as the Tories’ “sole tentpole”, and warned that “ambitious jockeying for position” could alienate Conservative activists already smarting from a bruising election.
And other Tories will likely be making the case for breaking away from the UK Conservative Party, another senior MSP, Liz Smith, has said.
The Scottish Conservatives will be looking for a new chief after Douglas Ross, who resigned in the middle of the General Election campaign, eventually moves aside.
Ross failed to win the seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, losing out to the SNP’s Seamus Logan, while other Scottish Tory MSPs who stood for Westminster (including Kerr, Sandesh Gulhane, and Sue Webber) also failed to be elected.
Kerr called on Ross to step aside to make way for an interim leader, elected by MSPs, to take over for the duration of the contest.
The party should take its time in electing a new leader, Kerr and Greene both argued, with the focus set to be on the new Labour government in London.
“There is no need to bounce the party into a quick coronation in time for the start of the new parliamentary session at Holyrood in September,” Kerr said.
“It would be entirely counterproductive when the leadership contest itself presents us with an opportunity to discuss the future of our party in a way we haven’t in more than a decade.”
Greene made similar remarks, writing: “The question I now pose is simple: is the Scottish Conservative party leadership hoping for a conveniently short contest, with high barriers to entry, to appoint its preferred candidate? Or is it willing instead to have a real and meaningful conversation about what sort of party they want any new leader to lead?
“I suspect some grandees prefer the former. A swift return to business as usual. A new face of continuity at the helm. I, however, and many others, believe the latter is a necessity.
“I’ll say this frankly; the party must do this properly to ensure the widest possible debate, lest we risk political extinction.
“This is a perfectly timed opportunity. We haven’t had one since the mighty Ruth Davidson took the reins.”
It is understood a formal decision on whether Ross will remain on as leader until after the contest to replace him has concluded is yet to be taken.
Smith, the Scottish Tories’ finance spokesperson and another senior MSP, has said she believed former candidate Murdo Fraser would stand to replace Ross.
Fraser stood more than a decade ago with the key pledge to separate the Scottish Tories from the party in the rest of the UK, but lost out to the now Baroness Davidson.
His push, Smith predicted, would “be part of the mix” in the coming contest.
