Holyrood is the 'epicentre of self-righteous Scotland', says Russell Findlay

RUSSELL Findlay has said Holyrood is the “epicentre” of “self-righteous” Scotland.

Speaking to The Scotsman, the Scottish Conservatives leader described Holyrood as a “desperate place” which is often in “a bit of a bubble”.

He said: "I call it the concrete bunker. It's soul-sapping. It's kind of the epicentre of twee, civic, self-righteous, self-regarding, crony-stuffed Scotland.”

(Image: Jacob King) Findlay told The Scotsman that too much time is spent in Holyrood debating “nonsense side issues” the Scottish Parliament has no control over – including “events in the Middle East”.

He said: “There are lots of MSPs who are clearly doing a grand job, but it does seem to be a bit of an echo chamber, a bit of a bubble, where you just have to look at a typical weekly agenda.

"The opposition parties all seem to want to talk about things that the Parliament has absolutely nothing to do with, has no power over, whether that be events in the Middle East or other issues of that nature.

"And the reality is this Parliament has a huge amount of power when it comes to changing people's lives for the better."

He added: "It's a place that is hugely frustrating in that it does have power to do good, but far too often it doesn't do that properly and is far too distracted by nonsense side issues."

The Scottish Tory leader also touched on the rise of Reform UK in Scotland, insisting he is “not even thinking” about Nigel Farage’s party.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage “I’m not remotely bothered what they do,” he said.

“They can continue hiding away or they can come out and start telling people what they actually believe.”

He added: “I don’t know what Reform stands for. In the General Election, they had prominent candidates and others who support breaking up the United Kingdom. Are they really a pro-union party? I don’t know.

“They don’t have any form of leadership that we can see in Scotland. They don’t have any policies in Scotland.”

He added that it is “demonstrably the case” that voting for Reform will simply benefit the SNP by splitting the unionist vote.

Findlay became leader of the Scottish Conservatives in September, after Douglas Ross was driven out of the role following his decision to stand in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat at Westminster in place of former MP David Duguid, who was recovering from a spinal stroke.

Prior to his career in politics, Findlay worked as a journalist and reporter for more than 25 years, including at the Sun, Daily Mail and STV.