A NEW Scottish LibDem MP who previously donated to the Conservatives is facing questions about where his “true loyalties lie” after it emerged he had hired a Tory stalwart to run his Westminster office.
Angus MacDonald, who beat the SNP’s Drew Hendry to win Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire for the Liberals, has hired former Tory election agent and one-time Highland independent councillor Andrew Baxter as his chief of staff.
Baxter previously worked on the election campaigns of the late David Amess (below), a long-serving Tory backbencher, and former minister Brandon Lewis, who also briefly served as chairman of the Conservative Party.
MacDonald has also flirted with the Tories in the past, donating £25,000 to the party under the leadership of Boris Johnson, as we previously revealed.
Now The National can reveal that Baxter has been brought on for a senior role in MacDonald’s office.
In a post on social media, Baxter said: “I am delighted to have been asked by the newly elected Member of Parliament for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire Angus MacDonald Highland Liberal Democrats to head up his constituency and parliamentary operations as Chief of Staff.
“It's exciting to be called upon to use my political experience to assist a new MP in their role representing the constituents of an amazing part of our country. It's a new parliamentary constituency and a very different parliament. I can't wait!”
The appointment was criticised by Peter Newman, who ran for the Greens in the Inverness seat.
He told The National: “I’ve known Andrew for a long time, he was my local councillor and a very effective one he was too. He is a lovely man and a fantastic signing for the constituency.
“However, from Angus’ point of view it seems an odd appointment having just been through a campaign where he repeatedly had to refute allegations of being a Tory after his notorious donations to the 2019 campaign. Perhaps he’s letting the electorate know where his true loyalties lie?”
Baxter found himself embroiled in an expenses row in 2015, when The Times reported on concerns about his links with Lewis, then a housing minister.
The paper reported that his political consultancy firm Papagenos, where he was a partner, had been paid £37,000 between 2010 and 2015 for “research briefing and other parliamentary associated assistance”.
Both Lewis (below) and Baxter at the time insisted their dealings were above board.
Speaking to The National, MacDonald said he had “jumped at the opportunity” to hire Baxter, who had been planning to contest the upcoming Fort William and Ardnamurchan by-election for the LibDems, given his extensive political experience.
He added: “People move between parties all the time.”
MacDonald also said he had donated more to Unionist campaign groups like Scotland in Union and Better Together than the £25,000 he had gifted to the Tories in 2019.
The LibDem stressed he had wanted to support Ruth Davidson, rather than Johnson, and said he had also previously donated to his current party.
