A former Tory councillor has said the party has no direction, as she revealed she has quit the Conservatives in the aftermath of the council elections last week.
Ann Le Blond represented the party in Cambuslang West for five years and was the group's deputy leader at South Lanarkshire Council.
However, Ms Le Blond lost her position on the council, being replaced by Norman Rae of the Liberal Democrats.
The Tories also lost their other seat in Rutherglen and Cambuslang, as Libby Fox failed to retain a place on Rutherglen Central and North, previously held by Jared Wark, who didn't stand this time round.
Ms Le Blond told Lanarkshire Live that although she will miss the role, she was not surprised at the result and that she could understand the frustration of voters after the recent Partygate revelations surrounding Boris Johnson, and Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross flip-flopping on whether the Prime Minister should stand down.
She said: "I’m disappointed but I was realistic about it as well - I knew it was unlikely I’d be back in from the feedback we got on the street. I had people saying to me they had always voted Tory but would sit this one out due to Boris Johnson and to be honest I could totally understand that feeling.
“I feel the party has really lost its way, both at Westminster and Holyrood. All the flip-flopping from Douglas Ross on whether Boris should resign was awful, and it feels like there is no direction at all. The party seems misaligned, and it's hard to see what we are actually standing for sometimes.
"I’ve been with the party for about 20 years but I’ve handed in my membership- that's not because of last week, it's been something I've been thinking about for a while now."
Ms Le Blond now intends to return to her day job as a surveyor and focus on her family.
The former Cambuslang West representative added that she would miss working with the ward's other councillors, John Bradley and Margaret Walker.
She said: "Margaret and John both said they’d miss me and that meant a lot to me. We really enjoyed working together and we tried to do as much as we could do together for the constituency, working across party lines.
"We tried to work it where we would help each other and bounce things off each other to help the area. They’re both great councillors and I hope that good relationship continues with Norman. Everyone else that worked at the Council was really helpful too and I want to say thanks for everything they did."
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