Tory MP hits out at bid to scrap party

SCOTLAND’S only Conservative MP has said he cannot support disbanding the Scottish Tories and will refuse to fall into line with Murdo Fraser’s plans for a new party.

David Mundell has said he will fight the next General Election as a Conservative even if Fraser presses ahead with his plans to abolish the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party to replace it with a new centre-right alternative.

The refusal of Mundell, a minister in David Cameron’s government, to accept plans for a new party makes a damaging split in Conservative ranks inevitable should front-runner Fraser win the Scottish leadership contest.

Mundell told Scotland on Sunday that Fraser’s plans were a “betrayal” of members and voters.

The Scotland Office minister had given a written assurance that he would remain neutral during the leadership contest, but the strength of his opposition to a new party has led him to break his silence.

“The prospect of the winding-up of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, the emergence of another party in Scotland and the potential for a serious split is too great a threat simply to stand by and let happen without expressing an opinion,” he said.

In the leadership contest, Mundell is throwing his weight behind Ruth Davidson, the newly elected MSP who, unlike Fraser, wants the Scottish Conservatives to remain wedded to the UK Conservatives.

Speaking on the eve of the Tory party conference, Mundell said: “Not only will she (Davidson) prevent the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party from being wound up, she also offers the energy, leadership and vision to take us forward.”

Mundell’s outspoken attack on Fraser’s plans would suggest that his views are shared by other members of the Cameron administration.

Fraser is contesting the leadership on the basis that he wants to abolish the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and replace it with a newly named centre-right party that would be separate from Cameron’s UK party.

The break-away would be brokered on the basis that Fraser’s party would stand on its own platform in Scotland, but would forge an electoral alliance with the UK Conservatives for Westminster elections.

If he wins the leadership contest and succeeds in his plan to replace the Scottish Tories with a newly named political entity, Fraser envisages that the UK party would cease to organise north of the Border.

But Mundell has made clear that he intends to remain a Conservative and will not countenance entering talks to form an electoral pact with a new party.

“At the next UK election I want to see a majority Conservative government,” he said. “I don’t want a coalition, not with the Liberal Democrats, not with some new party that sets up to take over from the Conservatives in Scotland.

“I am proud to be a Conservative and, therefore, if I am fortunate enough to be re-elected in 2015, I will be taking the Conservative whip, not entering into coalition negotiations as proposed by some who want a new party.”

Last night Fraser’s campaign manager Liz Smith, the Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, said: “David Mundell did give an assurance that he was going to be neutral during the campaign. But that’s entirely a matter for him.

“The most important thing is that with this new party we can provide far more MPs in Scotland, who can take the Conservative whip at Westminster and provide David Cameron with support for a Conservative government.”