KEMI Badenoch has accused the Scottish media of trying to paint her and other UK party leaders as “alien” to Scotland.
The Tory leader spoke to press during a visit to Glasgow on Thursday, when she was asked why a visit north of the Border had taken so long to happen.
The first time the question was asked, Badenoch failed to respond.
The second time, it was put to her that no Conservative leader since Stanley Baldwin – who led the party a century ago – had taken so long to visit Scotland after taking over. Badenoch became Tory leader on November 2, 2024 – 131 days before her visit north.
She responded: “So I think the question you're asking is actually extraordinary, and the fact that you think I didn't answer it is interesting.
“It sounds like you think I'm some sort of alien who's just popped up from space. And I would remind you that Scotland is part of the UK, and I'm the leader of the Conservative Party in the UK.
“I've been Scotland [sic] many times. I used to work for the Royal Bank of Scotland. I visited here during my leadership campaign, but there were other places that I hadn't been to either, and I went there first, and I'm here now, and I think that's important.
“But I also think that the constant trying to present the Conservative Party leader, or probably the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as something alien to the country, is quite wrong, and we should stop doing that.”
Elsewhere, Badenoch took aim at the SNP on gender. She claimed there is “serious potential” that Scotland’s public bodies are breaking the law by allowing trans people into sex-single spaces.
Badenoch said ministers have not done “anything, in my view, anywhere close to giving the appropriate guidance” to public organisations.
She said the “concept of gender identity”, as used by the SNP, “is not often established in law”.
She said that while the party has “dropped its plans for self-ID, the ideology is still there”.
