HOLYROOD’S newest MSP will take her oath when the parliament resumes after Queen’s funeral next week.
Roz McCall, who will replace Dean Lockhart as a Conservative representative for the Mid Scotland and Fife region, takes her seat in chamber on Tuesday, September 20.
It will be the first sitting day of Holyrood after the Parliament temporarily closed following the announcement the Queen had died.
McCall automatically took over Lockhart’s seat as a regional list MSP following his resignation earlier in the month.
In a shock move, the Tory representative quit the seat he had held since 2016 to pursue a new career in a business which he said “works together with governments, local authorities and third sector bodies, and that will help finance and deliver net-zero targets across the UK”.
It is not yet known for which firm Lockhart now works.
It came as a blow to Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who also lost one of his frontbench team the same day.
Oliver Mundell quit as the party’s education spokesperson citing personal reasons, saying he wanted to “find a better balance when it comes to making time for my young family”.
Lockhart was the chair of Holyrood’s Environment Committee, a position that has since been filled by his Conservative colleague Finlay Carson.
McCall, who stood down as a councillor for Strathearn in Perth and Kinross Council earlier this year, took his seat without the need for a by-election.
This is because MSPs for regional seats, as opposed to constituencies, are elected according to their position on a list, meaning McCall will have been the next highest-ranked Tory candidate for the area after her predecessor.
Constituency seats are elected by first past the post.
It is understood that she will be the first MSP to pledge allegiance to the new King, with no other members expected to do so on the resumption of parliament on Tuesday.
The Scottish Parliament, unlike Westminster, does not consider it necessary for members to retake their oaths again on the death of a monarch.
Some MPs, including the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and party leaders including Ian Blackford and Ed Davey, as well as other senior Commons figures took their oaths on Saturday, in an unusual sitting of the parliament.
MSPs returning to the chamber on Tuesday will not be required to do so. Ross will need to retake his oath as an MP, but not to resume his duties in Holyrood.
On her assumption of the seat, McCall said: “I am delighted and honoured to join the Scottish Conservative MSPs in Holyrood.
“As an MSP I will work to reverse the erosion of local democracy, to hold the SNP government to account, and to provide alternative, new and imaginative, positive policies to benefit the people of Mid Scotland and Fife, and Scotland as a whole.”
