SCOTTISH Tory MSP Jamie Greene has left the party over its slide towards a "Reform-lite agenda".
“I don’t believe that I have left the Conservative Party. I believe that the party has left me," he said.
The once leadership hopeful added that the Scottish Tories risk becoming “Trump-esque in both style and substance”.
Seen as being on the left of the party, Greene has been outspoken in his support for LGBT rights and defied the party’s opposition to the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
He will resign with "immediate effect" and sit as an independent MSP.
In a scathing letter to Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, he claimed to have joined a “modern party led by David Cameron” but added that “the unfortunate truth, however, is that the Scottish Conservative Party which I joined simply no longer exists”.
Greene said: “This is a decision which I have not taken lightly, and one which has weighed heavily on my mind for some time. I have enormous respect for the many Conservative colleagues and activists that I have worked with over the years. I wish the party no ill will, and hope that feeling is reciprocated.”
He added: “I joined the party that supported gay marriage, in which minority communities were welcome, which pledged commitment to a net-zero environment and which was a political ‘big tent and broad church’.
“It was an election-winning formula and I felt as though I had truly found my political home. It was a party that made a young, working class, gay man from Greenock feel very welcome. I do not regret that decision."
Greene then launched an attack on (above) Findlay's leadership of the party, saying: “Chasing the votes of Reform Party supporters will never see the Scottish Conservatives in government. There simply aren't enough fringe right-wing Scottish voters to achieve that.”
He added: “The party now rests its hopes on a Reform-light agenda that appeals to the worst of our society and not the best. We now run the very serious and immediate risk of becoming once again the party of social vision and morality wars.
“My generation of Conservative politicians helped put the ‘nasty party’ name in the bin, but it now appears that it was just filed away in a drawer marked pending. I am not alone in feeling this way, although I am perhaps one of the first to say so publicly.”
