Murdo Fraser announces candidacy for Scottish Tory leadership

Nominations for the post open on Thursday.

Senior Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser has announced his candidacy for the party leadership (Fraser Bremner/Daily Mail/PA) (PA Archive)

Senior Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser has announced his bid for the leadership of the party, claiming members have been “let down” by bosses north and south of the border.

Mr Fraser becomes the sixth person to announce plans to run ahead of nominations opening on Thursday.

Russell Findlay, deputy leader Meghan Gallacher, Brian Whittle, Liam Kerr and Jamie Greene have all also thrown their hats into the ring to replace Douglas Ross.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Fraser said the party needs “real change”, but said he will not seek to split the Scottish Conservatives from their UK-wide counterparts as he did in a previous leadership run in 2011.

“This party, our party, has let us all down,” he said in a video posted to social media.

“You, its members, were let down by Boris Johnson over partygate, you were let down by Liz Truss’s mini-budget, you were let down by Rishi Sunak at D-Day.

“And yes, I’m sorry to say, you were let down by Douglas Ross and his team.

“So now, our party must change, and change cannot be continuity in a fancy wrapper – our party needs a leader who will reach every corner of it, change it and hold it together all at the same time.”

Writing in The Scotsman, the Mid Scotland and Fife MSP added: “This is not my first attempt to lead my party. But it is my most important.

“This party is fractured. It is unhappy. It is vulnerable.

“Continuity won’t cut it.

“The days of a tiny group holding the power which should belong to the members must end.

“Only I can end that. When I say I want to change the party, it is not just a campaign slogan, I mean it.”

Along with announcing his candidacy, Mr Fraser also published a 12-point plan for his leadership, including pledges to end what he described as “top-down directives”, creating more policies other than being against Scottish independence and putting a representative of the party’s councillors on the frontbench.

He also reiterated his commitment to an independent commission to look at the party’s links with the UK Tories.

The candidate also said his team will avoid attacking others in the race, and urged others to do the same, saying: “I and my team will fight an entirely positive campaign focused on our ideas. We won’t be indulging in tiresome, divisive attacks on other candidates and their ideas, nor responding to such attacks on us. I’m sure all candidates will take a similar approach.”