It's the Minister for Edinburgh

The Tory leader will be in the city on Monday when he will unveil Shadow Leader of the Lords, Tom Strathclyde, in the new role. It is part of a plan to appoint a senior Shadow Cabinet figure for each major city in Britain.

Former Scottish Office minister Lord Strathclyde, who was born in Glasgow, will be tasked with visiting the Capital regularly and developing a relationship with local politicians at all levels, as well as business, religious and other community leaders. All the city ministers will meet Mr Cameron every month to give reports on the progress in each area.

The move comes as Mr Cameron seeks to put flesh on the bones of his conference promise to roll up his sleeves and fight to win more Westminster seats in Scotland. He believes that Edinburgh should have one or more Conservatives representing it in the House of Commons.

Currently, Scotland has just one Tory MP - Shadow Scottish Secretary David Mundell in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale. Its last two Conservative seats in the Capital - Lord James Douglas Hamilton in West Edinburgh and Sir Malcolm Rifkind in the old Pentlands seat - were lost in Labour's 1997 election landslide and have never been reclaimed.

Mr Mundell, who has become Shadow Minister for Glasgow, said: "Edinburgh is, of course, a hugely important city not just in the Lothians region, but as a capital city for the whole of Scotland and the UK. Yet, since 1997, we as a party have had no MPs representing it.

"With Tom Strathclyde acting as Shadow Minister for Edinburgh, together with a newly invigorated party led by David Cameron, that is something we want to rectify.

"Tom will regularly visit Edinburgh and build contacts across the city, not just within the party but also with leading community and religious leaders."

Mr Cameron will also use the trip to Edinburgh to make a major announcement on his party's UK disability policy. He will visit the headquarters of Capability Scotland in Ellersly Road, Murrayfield, before going to the Prestonfield House Hotel to launch the party's Edinburgh City Initiative.

In the long term, Mr Cameron hopes that by promoting Tory values in major cities, he will increase Tory representation there.

Lord Strathclyde is considered to be one of the heavyweights of the Tory front bench with strong connections in both politics and business across Scotland.

• TOM STRATHCLYDE is leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords, a post he has held since 1998.

He entered the House of Lords in 1986 and was promoted to Minister for Tourism in 1989, and then to Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries at the Scottish Office between 1990 and 1992.

After the 1992 General Election, he moved to the Department for the Environment, and then became Minister of State for Small Firms and Consumer Affairs at the Department of Trade and Industry.

He was born in Glasgow in 1960 and is married with three children.