Rifkind says party needs to back Fraser for Scotland’s sake

By Tom Peterkin and Andrew Whitaker
Published on Monday 10 October 2011 16:02

SCOTTISH Tory grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said the party would “be letting Scotland down” if it failed to back Murdo Fraser in the bitter contest to succeed Annabel Goldie.

The former foreign secretary told The Scotsman that the Scottish Conservatives would be electorally “impotent” if its members did not back Mr Fraser, who had based his campaign to become leader on a proposal to scrap the Tories north of the Border and launch a new centre-right breakaway party.

The stark warning about a “very important, historic moment” for the Scottish Tories from Sir Malcolm came as members were sent ballot papers for the four-way contest, which also involves Glasgow list MSP Ruth Davidson, transport spokesman at Holyrood Jackson Carlaw and Central Scotland MSP Margaret Mitchell.

Sir Malcolm, also a former Scottish secretary and defence secretary and now an MP for a London constituency, dismissed the scathing criticism of Mr Fraser’s proposals for a split from David Cameron’s UK Conservatives and insisted the MSP had “real leadership qualities of a very significant kind”.

He said: “It is very important, in my judgment, if we were to simply vote for what was in effect continuation of status quo. The status quo is continuing to be impotent at a time when Scotland needs a strong centre-right party, and therefore I just don’t think we would be letting ourselves down. We would be letting Scotland down.

“I think in Murdo Fraser, we are fortunate to have an individual who has had the courage to put forward what to some people will be unpopular, but that is what leadership is all about.

“Really important and significant change is required and if you are aspiring to be leader of your party, then leadership doesn’t mean becoming leader and then telling people what you are going to do.

“It ought to involve indicating what you stand for and arguing your point of view.

“So that impressed me in regard to the three individuals. That suggested to me that he had real leadership qualities of a very significant kind.”

Sir Malcolm also rejected suggestions that Mr Fraser would not have a mandate to dissolve the Scottish Tories if he was elected party leader next month.

He said: “Murdo started off as the clear front-runner, with everybody absolutely certain that he would win election, so he didn’t have to put his head above the parapet and be controversial.

“I think it is very honest and welcome example of transparency to say: ‘Look, yes I want you to vote for me, but this is what I believe in, make sure you understand that’.

“That is what politics ought to be about: real choices with honest debate in a mature way, and that doesn’t always happen.”

The former Edinburgh MP went on to say that he was “very worried” the lengthy run-up to the SNP’s independence referendum would be “hugely damaging” to the prospect of overseas investing in Scotland.

He said: “I don’t think it (the threat to the Union) is severe in that I don’t think the SNP has any serious prospect of winning the referendum.

“But I am very worried for two reasons. First of all, the idea that leaving this unaddressed for three years, which is what Salmond wishes, is hugely damaging to Scotland’s investment.

“Although we might believe that referendum will happily lead to Scotland remaining part of the United Kingdom, the rest of the world doesn’t know that. Now if I was American, Japanese, German, French … from any other part of the world, I would say for the time being I am not going to invest there.”

Senior SNP MP John Wilson, the deputy head of Holyrood’s economy committee, accused Sir Malcolm of “scaremongering”.

He said: “The worldwide business community view Scotland as being more open to new development than the UK.

“The SNP government is intent on taking Scotland forward, not destroying jobs and the economic base of the country, which the Tory governments of the 1980s and 1990s did.”