All is not well in the Scottish Tory party. Onetime leadership hopeful Jamie Greene MSP has dramatically quit the party today, announcing his exit in a scathing letter to current leader Russell Findlay. Raging that the group has become ‘Trump-esque in both style and substance’, Greene fumed that the Scottish Conservatives were at risk of being once again labelled the ‘Nasty Party’ by ‘chasing the votes’ of Reform voters. Ouch.
The Scottish politician – who believes he was sacked from the party’s frontbench in 2023 over his support for Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reforms – blasted his party for a rightwards shift as Reform UK continues to gain momentum north of the border. He slammed Findlay’s advisers, warning the group leader that ‘those advising you will lead the party to a collapse in support for a decent centre-right politics in Scotland’. Going on, Greene added:
Chasing the votes of Reform party supporters will never see the Scottish Conservatives in government; there simply aren’t enough fringe right-wing Scottish voters to achieve that. Instead of proudly leading on equality, we now run the very serious and immediate risk of becoming once again the party of social division and morality wars. If not now, perhaps one day in the future when, as night follows day, the party comes to understand that Scottish elections are won in the centre ground, not on the right-wing fringes in a grotesque dance with Nigel Farage.
Don’t hold back! Greene’s criticism comes after a recent Survation poll for Quantum Communications revealed support for Farage’s outfit has surged in Scotland. The survey suggests Reform – which, as yet, has no Scottish leader – could overtake the Tories to third place in next year’s Holyrood election, electing as many as 14 MSPs in 2026. The Conservative party’s fortunes look rather less bright, however, with the data suggesting the party could almost halve in size next year. Crikey.
For his part, Findlay has insisted: ‘I will keep standing up for the common sense values of mainstream Scotland and opposing the damage caused by Holyrood’s left-wing consensus.’ Whether that will prove enough for the Conservatives to cling onto their Scottish seats is quite another matter…
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