Douglas Ross ends FMQs stint with a whimper and more bad blood

Douglas Ross’s time as Scottish Tory leader came to an underwhelming end at his final FMQs - with no-one more pleased to see the end of his time in charge than his colleagues.

Whatever your political persuasion, you have to feel for Mr Ross. Having endured the humiliating general election defeat he hung his political future on in July, having to return to the Holyrood frontbench having already quit - and he forced to sit there for a month - feels particularly cruel.

You wouldn’t know it was Mr Ross’s last FMQs, given no-one acknowledged the occasion and the Tory MPSs who bothered to turn up remained pretty muted.

Read more: Douglas Ross reveals confronting his Tory rivals over backstabbing attempts amid 'paranoid' infighting

There was a time when Mr Ross was able to get under the skin of SNP first ministers with ease - Nicola Sturgeon’s twilight and Humza Yousaf’s brief time in Bute House in particular. Mr Ross even claims to have ended Mr Yousaf’s administration.

But John Swinney has appeared largely unfazed by Mr Ross’s FMQs attacks. They have mostly fallen flat, despite a flurry of crises facing SNP ministers. As he exits the stage, Mr Ross appears only to be able to get under the skin of his Tory colleagues.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross | Getty Images

This isn’t a recent development, but things have certainly ramped up since Mr Ross made his walk of shame back to the frontbench after his horrendous election defeat following his humiliating resignation.

At an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over the summer, Mr Ross spoke pretty candidly about the backstabbing from his colleagues - admitting he had it out with them, but was ultimately stuck with colleagues he could no longer trust.

Mr Ross sparked more fury yesterday after telling Representing Border that if he had one piece of advice to give to whoever succeeds him, it would be to “trust your advisers”.

He added: “You need a small team of people close to you because you could go along the corridor and listen to every MSP in our group and have 31 different opinions.”

But his colleagues are not impressed. One, Edward Mountain, retweeted a post on X by former Tory MSP Brian Monteith, branding the admissions he couldn’t take advice from elected politicians as “appalling”. Fellow backbencher Findlay Carson simply responded with the word “really”.

One Tory MSP told me that Mr Ross should “keep quiet”, adding that “luckily he won’t be in charge for much longer”.

After his last FMQs, Mr Ross told me it was “up to other colleagues to think what is correct to put into the public domain”.

He added: “Every party has disagreements. I think it’s better that they are held behind closed doors. I know some people prefer to speak publicly about that, albeit anonymously.

“I hope that when the new leader is elected, and I will be supporting whoever is elected, I hope they can have a group that’s right behind them.”

Mr Ross picked the sobering investigation into the murder of Nairn banker Alistair Wilson and Police Scotland’s handling of it, to sign off his FMQs account.

This time he picked well, but the Tories desperately need some fresh blood to bring it to the FM. Mr Ross has run out of road and run out of friends.

Whoever gets the unenviable task of leading a party of decline into the 2026 Holyrood election will need to pick the right battles with Mr Swinney every single Thursday. Under Mr Ross’s leadership, that simply did not happen.