Runners and riders in clash over Tory future

Contenders for the Scottish Conservative leadership have clashed over the future of the party, as deputy Murdo Fraser warned it was facing a “slow death” unless it was scrapped and rebuilt – prompting claims he was in danger of turning its cause into a “laughing stock”.

In fiery exchanges at a hustings event for leadership candidates in Manchester, Mr Fraser insisted again there could be no other option than to scrap the current Scottish party, saying it was “out of touch” and no longer “credible” in the eyes of voters.

But he was lambasted by his rivals for the top job, as they claimed that the spectacle of the party debating whether or not to end itself would be “preposterous” at a time when it would be needed to fight the independence referendum.

Last night, in a sign of his own priorities, Prime Minister David Cameron told the Scottish members at the conference that they needed to take the fight to the SNP over the forthcoming independence referendum.

He once again called on First Minister Alex Salmond to bring the referendum on, accusing him of being a “fearty” for not doing so. Mr Salmond has said he will hold the referendum in the second half of the current parliament.

However, the contenders to replace Annabel Goldie have seen their campaign dominated almost entirely by the proposal to create a new separate party.

The bitter spat comes with the race for the Scots Tory leadership having heated up considerably in the last few days, after the party’s sole MP, David Mundell, warned that he would not stand under the banner of the new party if Mr Fraser got his way.

That prompted Mr Fraser’s campaign team to say he would have to stand as an independent, as the Scottish Conservative party would have ceased to exist.

With tensions running high, Mr Fraser told 150 party members that the current party had become a “barrier” to any electoral progress. In the seats the party targeted at last year’s general election, he added, “people came out in bigger numbers to vote against us and to stop us winning.”

The situation had become so desperate, he said, that even business supporters of the union had begun supporting the SNP. Prior to the Holyrood election, he said: “We saw people who know better piling in to support Alex Salmond, people like David Murray, because of the lack of a credible centre-right party.”

He said party restructuring, or a new leader on its own would fall short of regaining the party’s credibility with voters. “To quote Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” he said.

But Mr Fraser was a lone voice on the platform, which also included fellow MSPs Ruth Davidson, Jackson Carlaw and Margaret Mitchell, who are united in opposition to the proposals.

Mr Carlaw said it was “preposterous” to hope a new party with the same people in it would shift the party’s fortunes.

He warned that a lengthy process of changing the party would make the Tories “the laughing stock of politics”, negating any influence they might have over the independence referendum. “What role would we have in a referendum when we had made such asses of ourselves?” he said.

Mr Carlaw also warned that even if the party went by a new identity, it would still be referred to by its current name by political opponents and voters. “They’ll just say ‘We will still call you the Scots Tories’, with a big expletive before that,” he added.

The new favourite for the leader’s job, Ms Davidson, also argued that the party needed to “change ourselves, not our name” if it was to win back support in Scotland.

The attacks were also joined by members of the audience, including party donor Brian Gillies who said he had decided to hand Ms Davidson’s campaign £12,000 after Mr Fraser’s intentions were made clear.

He accused Mr Fraser of “going off in a huff to form the Judean People’s Front”.

In a fresh blow to Mr Fraser last night, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Cheryl Gillan, told a separate fringe event at the party conference that she did not believe the Welsh party would be better off by breaking away from the UK body.

She said: “Welsh Conservatives have always believed we are stronger and more effective as part of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, whilst having a clear national identity appropriate to Wales. It enables us to be efficient, effective and successful in our campaigning in Wales and contribute directly to Conservative policy making and direction.”

The Welsh party, seen by many as the model for the Scottish party to follow, has nine Conservative MPs to Scotland’s one.

Also, at the hustings event, Scots-born Conservative MP Eleanor Laing questioned whether the new party would lose its voice at Westminster.

She said: “At times when we have had no Tory MPs I have been able to say that 500,000 people voted Conservative and their views deserve to be heard and take into consideration. What would happen if nobody gets the chance to vote Conservative in a Westminster election?”

However, Mr Fraser said he had received “hundreds” of messages of support from backers of his reforms. He insisted the new party, under his plans, would be more than just a change of name, and would have a distinct Scottish identity.

The new leader will be announced on 4 November.