Scottish Tories should form new party, says leadership candidate

Murdo Fraser claims Conservatives’ only hope of attracting greater support in Scotland would be to split off from UK party The Scottish Tory party could be scrapped and replaced by a new centre-right party, under radical reform proposals drafted by the favourite to become its next leader. Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives , will launch his campaign to head the party on Monday by claiming that its only hope to attract greater popular support would be to split off from the UK party led by David Cameron. Fraser, a former chairman of the Scottish Young Conservatives, will argue that creating a new Scottish centre-right, tax-cutting party would allow it to build up a fresh political mandate and attract voters disenchanted by the current party, which has failed to recover significantly from 25 years of decline. After losing every Scottish seat at the 1997 Westminster election, the party now has only one MP at Westminster, David Mundell, the Scotland Office minister. It won just 15 out of 129 seats for the Scottish parliament at the last Holyrood elections and has failed to benefit from the collapse in Liberal Democrat support in Scotland. Many senior Tories in Scotland fear the party’s often toxic reputation among Scottish voters will undermine its campaign for Scotland to remain within the UK in the forthcoming independence referendum. Fraser argues that the autonomous party would ally itself to the UK party but remain independent. His proposals have been floated with David Cameron, the prime minister, and other senior Tory figures in the UK government. Cameron’s views are not clear but one of his close allies, Francis Maude, is reported to believe the Scottish party needs a radical solution to rebuild support. Several influential senior Scottish figures in the party, such as Liam Fox, the defence secretary, and Lord Forsyth, a former Scottish secretary closely associated with the party under Margaret Thatcher, are said to be highly critical of the proposal. In the past, Scottish Tories have pointed out that the party has long been constitutionally separate from the party in the rest of the UK. Critics say this is a technical issue which the voters do not see as meaningful. Fraser’s leadership campaign has already attracted a number of prominent supporters, including the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, the former speaker of the Scottish parliament, Liz Smith, and the senior Scottish Tory MEP Struan Stevenson. At his leadership campaign launch, Fraser is expected to say: “If I am elected as leader of the party, I will turn it into a new and stronger party for Scotland. A new party. A winning party with new supporters from all walks of life. “A new belief in devolution. A new approach to policy-making. A new name. But most importantly, a new positive message about the benefits of staying in and strengthening our United Kingdom. A new party. A new unionism. A new dawn.” Fraser is currently facing two other contenders for the leadership: Jackson Carlaw, a rightwinger close to party traditionalists, and Ruth Davidson, one of the party’s newest faces at Holyrood, elected at the last Scottish elections and the party’s only openly gay MSP. Davidson is said to be favoured by Cameron but has yet to formally declare. Carlaw launched his campaign on Friday by calling for an early referendum on independence and a new act of constitutional settlement to strengthened the UK. He told supporters: “I want to secure a strong Scotland in a great Britain and so the future of the union will be the heart and soul of my campaign and at the very centre of my appeal to party members.” Scottish politics Conservatives Scotland Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk

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