Back to the Tory leadership contest which is gathering pace post-conference season. In a matter of days, MPs will cast their votes to leave just two contenders in the race, before the membership gets its say. But there is consternation about the final two among the Holyrood group – which only appointed a new leader itself last week – after growing frustration about some of the frontrunners having snubbed Scotland. How very interesting.
Half of the Scottish Tory crowd – which only appointed a new leader itself last week – have publicly thrown their weight behind Tom Tugendhat, who has the backing of 16 of the party’s 31 MSPs. The leadership candidate made nine stops across the country during his recent visit and has this week pledged to bring Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay into the shadow cabinet. ‘I also want to promise clearly that I will be attending the Conservative cabinet in Scotland. I’ll do that every fortnight, and I’ll make sure that we’re in touch constantly,’ he insisted at his party conference in Birmingham. He’s certainly trying hard to keep the Scottish lot sweet, eh?
Tugendhat is offering his Scottish counterparts something that has been ‘missing’ in recent years, Douglas Lumsden MSP believes, telling Mr S:
The other candidates, I think they’ve all been to Scotland maybe once [over the campaign]…but Tom has been a friend and ally of Scotland, not just for this leadership campaign, but he’s been visiting Scotland for the last few years… There haven’t been any supporters from the MSP group for anyone else. That tells a story.
He went on: ‘It now feels that we could have a leader in place that actually will be an asset to Scotland for going to the polls in 2026. Over the last few years, we’ve had a leader of the UK party who has been a hindrance in Scotland.’ Shots fired…
‘We could certainly strengthen things when it comes to the two [Tory] parties,’ remarked another Tugendhat backer, Dr Sandesh Gulhane. The MSP pointedly hailed his favoured candidate for being ‘on first name terms with the majority of people’ at the Scottish Conservatives conference reception – which, after that rather toe-curling interview where Sunak failed to name any of the Scottish Tory frontbench except the party leader, will be rather welcomed.
Yet about the other candidates winning, there is considerable concern amongst the Scottish lot. ‘We just can’t have another crackpot in charge,’ one party source fumed to Mr S about the potential line-up for the final two. ‘It’s not good for us.’ ‘The others aren’t interested in Scotland,’ another insider added dispiritedly. ‘I think Kemi has only been up once.’ The gloves are coming off, eh?
Interestingly, the Scottish lot are not alone in feeling favourably about Tugendhat. New focus group polling of lost Tory voters by JL Partners for BBC 5 Live has this afternoon revealed a rather unexpected victor. Disillusioned Tory supporters tended to share the Tom T hype – with the Scots’ favourite generally receiving good reviews, while Badenoch was rather critically compared to Suella Braverman and Liz Truss, Robert Jenrick was slammed as ‘cringeworthy’ and ‘smug’, and Cleverly was blasted by multiple participants as ‘arrogant’. Ouch. Not that the bookies agree – with Bet365 showing instead that Tugendhat has the worst odds of all his rivals.
Could this all prove a turning point for Tom T? If readers cast their minds back to the 2005 Tory leadership contest, Mr S would point to Frank Luntz’s focus group polling for BBC Newsnight – which appeared to propel David Cameron to the top job, contrary to the consensus in Westminster. There are only days left until the next round of voting, but it seems there remains much to play for…
Comments