SCOTTISH Tory leader Russell Findlay has blamed people leaving his party for “selfish” personal reasons, as more of his colleagues jump ship.
Findlay’s comments come after Tory MSP Jamie Greene left the party over its slide towards a “Reform-lite agenda” on Thursday morning.
During First Minister Questions, John Swinney also accused Findlay of “deserting” the Tory Party’s political stance and “cuddling up” with Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
In the six months Findlay has been in charge of the Scottish Tories, nine councillors and one MSP have left the party, most of whom have joined Reform.
In a bid to stop support hemorrhaging from the party, the Tories have been accused of veering their politics further to the right.
In his statement on Thursday, Greene (below) highlighted Findlay’s attempts to align the party’s politics further to the right, as he said: “I don’t believe that I have left the Conservative Party. I believe that the party has left me.”
However, the Scottish Tory leader has insisted the party’s members “see what he is doing” and have confidence in him despite the defections.
“It is unfortunate, but you know I pledged to change the party and that’s exactly what I am doing,” Findlay told journalists after First Minister Questions on Thursday.
“I have much more positive feedback than I have negative, colleagues that choose to leave do so for all sorts of reasons, some of them fairly selfish to them.
“I believe that the people of Scotland and our members see what we are doing and see what I am doing as the new leader and have confidence in that.”
Findlay’s comments come after Swinney accused his party of changing its position regarding climate action.
The First Minister pointed out that Findlay said that Kemi Badenoch’s comments about abandoning climate change targets were “refreshing” after the Tories accused the Scottish Government of being “hostile” towards the oil and gas industry’s transition to renewables.
Swinney said: “Now I know that there's been another change of position in the Conservative Party.
“Russell Findlay, a few weeks ago, said it was refreshingly honest of Kemi Badenoch to say that we should abandon our climate change targets.
“Now what does that say about the Conservatives?
“It says the Conservatives are prepared in this Parliament to vote for climate change targets, and then when it becomes opportune to cuddle up to Nigel Farage and Reform, they abandon the climate change targets.
“We all now know because we're now deserting the Tory party, the Tory party is in a dance with Farage.”
