A DONOR who helped to fund Russell Findlay’s successful Scottish Tory leadership campaign was appointed as the party’s chairman just weeks later.
Tycoon Alasdair Locke gave the now-leader’s campaign £25,000 before landing the role, the Daily Record reports.
Scottish Labour have accused Findlay (below), who replaced Douglas Ross as leader in September, of “cronyism”.
The Record reports that Findlay raised £31,000 in donations during the leadership race with Locke’s gift on September 5 accounting for more than 80% of all of this.
He was then unveiled as Scottish Tory chair on November 16 which one Tory source said was “as predictable as it is depressing”.
Locke is the chairman of Motor Fuel Group and First Property Group and has donated more than £1m to the Tories since 2017.
In a speech on Saturday, Findlay said: “Alasdair is recognised as one of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs and we’re fortunate to welcome such a senior business leader as our chairman.
“His long-running support for our party has been unparalleled and I look forward to working with him even more closely in the future.”
Locke meanwhile said he was “very pleased” to be made chair of the party and that he was “looking forward to helping Russell as he takes on the left-wing parties at Holyrood and challenges the Labour Government at Westminster”.
“It’s a privilege to be appointed as chairman and I’m determined to deliver necessary changes to our party, so we can elect the maximum number of Scottish Conservative representatives as possible at every opportunity,” he said.
“Under Russell’s leadership, I know we can earn the trust of voters across Scotland and achieve successful results in the 2026 and 2027 elections.”
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie (above) meanwhile commented: “Russell Findlay likes to go on about cleaning up politics but this revelation will raise eyebrows.
“Mr Findlay needs to come clean over this and explain why it isn’t a case of cronyism.”
