Tory leaders have let party down. I will be different to Boris Johnson and Douglas Ross

I have been a member of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party for 40 years. My adult life has been spent supporting this party, campaigning for this party, and representing this party. But this party has let us, our members, and voters, down.

My message to Scottish Conservative members is that you have been let down. You 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 over D-Day. And yes, I am sorry to say, you were let down by the decisions taken by Douglas Ross and his team in the middle of the recent general election campaign.

Party members and activists, asked time after time to turn out at elections to knock on doors, to deliver leaflets, and to donate money, have been badly let down by decisions taken at the top. And now our party must change.

We have an impressive range of candidates for the leadership of our party who have already declared – Russell Findlay, Jamie Greene, Meghan Gallacher, Liam Kerr and Brian Whittle. All are valued friends and able colleagues. Most of the candidates are standing on a platform of change. My intention had been to support the person I believed would best represent the change I wanted to see.

But change can’t be continuity in a fancy wrapper. Our party needs a leader who can reach every corner of it, change it, and hold it together, all at the same time. Do those who have already declared their candidacy, whatever the many talents they have, have the necessary depth of experience and history in the party to do that, or the ability to unite us when this contest is over? I am not sure.

12-point plan

It is for that reason that, today, I announce my candidacy to be leader of my Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, with a pledge to deliver the real change we need. I want to give this party back to its members. As leader, I would provide a new style of leadership, with a proper collegiate approach to decision-making.

I will build a party where the views of members really count. And I will build a team at Holyrood where I act as a leader, first among equals, taking decisions collaboratively, not a ruler, occasionally passing down decisions that have already been taken by a tiny cabal.

Today I am publishing a 12-point plan for how to reform this party internally to ensure that the members have a real say for the first time. I will deliver the real reform we need. Our party needs change. But so does our country. By the time we get to the next Holyrood election in 2026, the SNP will have been in power for 19 years. That is nearly two decades of failure.

Two decades where an obsession with the constitution has meant that our economy and our public services have suffered, where economic growth has lagged behind the rest of the UK, and where, shamefully, our education system which was once the envy of the world is now delivering substantially poorer results than in England.

Bursting with ideas

I believe that in 2026 people will be voting for change. But we can’t replace one left-of-centre party with a different one, just because it has a different view on the constitution. Labour don’t offer the real change that Scotland needs, but the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party under my leadership will.

Colleagues in our party are bursting with ideas about how to take Scotland forward, with proposals on the economy, the NHS, on schools, on transport, on the environment, on farming, on housing, and so much more. People across Scotland are crying out for an alternative to what we have now. My job as leader will be to bring everyone together with a policy platform which has broad appeal to Scottish voters.

I wrote in this paper last week about John Buchan’s patriotic unionism and how I see that as a model for the Scottish Conservatives of today to follow. As leader, I would be active in promoting Scottish interests, not fearing to challenge Westminster colleagues if that were necessary.

No party split

But I won’t be splitting the party or setting up a new one – my aim is to unite our party, not divide it. In any event, these are questions for the membership as whole, not the leader, and we have had too much top-down decision-making in the past.

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.

So my message to our members is this. If you believe in a party where the members take back control, and if you believe in a Scotland which takes a new direction with a government that is avowedly pro-growth, pro-business, supportive of individual liberty and personal responsibility, and for reformed, efficient and responsive public services, come and join me on this journey.

If you, as a member, want more of the same, you can vote for it. But if you want your party back, and if you want a better Scotland, please give me your vote – for real change.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife