Exclusive:'This party is fractured': Scottish Tory veteran on splits and 'unhappy' members as leadership bid confirmed

Scottish Tory veteran Murdo Fraser said his party’s members had been “badly let down” as he becomes the sixth MSP to announce his candidacy for the leadership. 

Writing exclusively in The Scotsman, the MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife vowed only he could deliver "real change" as he revealed his bid to succeed Douglas Ross. 

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

Mr Fraser, his party's economy spokesman, previously mooted the idea of a breakaway party when he ran against Ruth Davidson in 2011.

However, he said he had changed his mind. "As leader, I would be active in promoting Scottish interests, not fearing to challenge Westminster colleagues if that were necessary," he said.

"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."

Speaking to The Scotsman, Mr Fraser said there was no consensus within the party over the issue, "and I want to be uniting the party, and not dividing it".

He said: "I think the way to deal with this is to set up a commission, which will take time to look at the question of party structures and come back with any recommendations to be implemented after the next Holyrood election in 2026. And that's a proposal that I think all the other leadership contenders have signed up to, to one extent or another."

Mr Fraser, who has been an MSP for the Mid Scotland and Fife region since 2001, said the Scottish Tories should not be "afraid of putting distance between ourselves and our colleagues in Westminster if that's necessary". 

He said: "We shouldn't be looking to pick fights. But there are issues where, if we see the party in Westminster taking a tack we do not believe is in the Scottish interest, we need to be prepared to speak out and say so."

He said the Tories in Scotland "need a distinctive Scottish identity and a distinctive Scottish voice", but that did not mean there had to be a different party. However, Mr Fraser said: "If there were to be a serious lurch to the right in the party at UK level, that is something that would concern me."

Tory MSPs Russell Findlay, Jamie Greene, Meghan Gallacher, Liam Kerr and Brian Whittle have also announced leadership bids.

But writing in The Scotsman, Mr Fraser suggested they do not have "the necessary depth of experience and history in the party" to enact change while uniting the Scottish Tories.

"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," he said.

Mr Fraser, a party member for four decades, said he would provide "a new style of leadership, with a proper collegiate approach to decision-making".

He said: "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."

He said party members in Scotland had been let down by former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and also by Mr Ross - the outgoing Scottish Tory leader - who announced his resignation during the general election campaign. 

Speaking to The Scotsman, Mr Fraser said the Scottish Tories got 12.7 per cent of the vote in the general election.

"If that were to be repeated in a Holyrood election, we would be losing around half the MSP seats that we currently have," he said. "That cannot be allowed to happen, in my view. We need to be going forward as a party, not backwards. That's only going to happen if we're prepared to embrace meaningful change."

Nominations for the post of party leader will formally open tomorrow (August 8) and will close at noon on August 22. All those running will have to get the backing of 100 party members before they can stand.

Ballot papers will be sent out to party members on September 4, with members having until the ballot closes at noon on September 26 to return them. The winner will be announced the following day.