'Blue Trot' who moved to sniper's nest to aim at leader

Published on Saturday 5 November 2005 02:49

BRIAN Monteith, 47, has never been far away from the bruiser tendency of the Scottish Conservatives and his aggressive style has made him one of the highest-profile Tories at Holyrood.

He quit as finance and public services spokesman in July, ostensibly to give himself freedom to talk about areas of policy which cut across other portfolios. At the time, sources inside the party predicted he would be a threat to Mr McLetchie's leadership from a sniper's nest on the back-benches.

One said: "It's well seen that Brian and David have not been getting on and now it's the old thing about people being inside the tent or outside and what they do when they're outside the tent."

The former chairman of the Young Conservatives in Scotland, once branded "an extreme right-winger" and known as a "Blue Trot", joined the party in 1976 while an architecture student at Heriot-Watt University.

In 1981, he was investigated by his own party for his conduct as a Federation of Conservative Students leader.

He later founded and ran an anti-Scottish Parliament campaign in the run-up to the 1997 referendum.

He was elected to the parliament in 1999 as a Mid Scotland and Fife list MSP, making an impact as spokesman for education, sport and culture.