Scottish Tories struggle to be heard after election skelping
But for all the jibes, the problem facing Mr Findlay's party is that they are struggling to even get on the pitch.
READ MORE
Findlay: Tories can win seats at Holyrood election despite polls pointing to drubbing
Tories unveil plans for 'Scottish first' medical student training policy
For Women Scotland threaten SNP with fresh legal action over Supreme Court ruling
The party suffered its worst-ever defeat at last year's general election, slumping to just 121 seats UK-wide — a loss of 244.
In Scotland, the scale of the collapse was slightly masked.
Despite a chaotic campaign that saw Douglas Ross alienate members and then quit before polling day, the party managed to hold on to five of its six seats.
Although the Tory vote halved, support for the SNP — the main challengers in each Conservative-held seat — declined even more sharply.
The ghosts of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak continue to haunt the party, while the spectre of Nigel Farage looms ever larger.
The latest projections from Professor Sir John Curtice, based on last month's Survation poll, paint a bleak picture for next year's Holyrood vote.
His modelling has the Tories slumping to fourth place with just 13 MSPs — less than half their current tally of 30.
The SNP would return 58 seats, while Reform UK would leapfrog the Conservatives to become the main opposition on 21.
Labour would win 18 seats, with the LibDems and Greens on 10 and 8 respectively.
Mr Findlay did not shy away from the scale of the challenge, admitting that a huge effort would be needed to even earn the right to be heard.
Yet despite the grim outlook, the party is hopeful.
'You would think we had no right to be as upbeat as we are, but it is the phenomena of the Conservative Party,' said Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland.
'Against all of the odds, we are feeling genuinely optimistic and positive.'I think we knew that 2024 was going to be terrible. Having taken that skelping, I think people are back to renew the party — and that is the strong statement of both Russell and Kemi's remarks.'
'We are sitting in a much diminished form at Westminster, our worst ever election result in over 250 years of the Conservative Party really being in existence. And really beginning the fightback,' shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie told Unspun Live, The Herald's politics podcast.
'And that is where we are right now — beginning that long, hard slog of regaining the trust of the British people, hopefully with a view to getting back into power in short order in four years' time.'
Mr Findlay has settled into the role of party leader. He is much more relaxed and less like the deer trapped in the headlights he resembled when he took over from Douglas Ross last September.
He is putting the effort in. One Tory staffer said the boss had rehearsed his 42-minute address at least eight times before delivering it to party members on Saturday lunchtime.
It was an unashamedly Conservative speech with a raft of policies rooted in the party's traditional values: tax cuts funded by £650 million in savings from slashing quangos and civil service jobs; scrapping the SNP's 2045 net zero target; and a pledge to train more Scottish medical students to reduce NHS reliance on immigration.
For years, Scottish Tory speeches at conference have been dominated by saying no to indyref2. That was in Mr Findlay's speech, of course — but it was his programme for government that was to the fore.
'The way we beat Reform is by having good, proper policies in place. We have not seen very much from Reform policy-wise,' North East list MSP Douglas Lumsden told The Herald on Sunday.
'I still think there is enough time [to turn things around]. It is 11 months before the election and this is about building a positive message we can take next year.
'We absolutely need to move on from the past.'
The scale of the party's challenge — and the threat from Reform — was made painfully clear earlier this month at the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, where the Tories came a distant fourth.
In a seat where they had won 17.5% at the last Holyrood election, they only just managed to hold on to their deposit.Meanwhile, Reform took 26% of the vote.
While Labour's surprise win has led to grumblings in the SNP, Mr Lumsden insists the party is united behind Mr Findlay.
'We are 100% behind Russell. There is no briefing at all from anyone. Russell has a brilliant personality and the more people who get to know him the more they like him — so we need to promote Russell.'
READ MORE
While Mr Findlay's position might be safe, the same cannot be said for Kemi Badenoch. Potential leadership hopefuls are on manoeuvres.
The leader of the opposition delivered her speech on Friday. It was only her second trip to Scotland since becoming leader in November.
'There is a lot of work to be done, a lot of messaging, a lot of renewal — and she has got the runway that Russell and the rest of us do not have,' Mr Kerr said.
'I am not worried about threats to her leadership. She is letting her colleagues get on with it. She is not a leader who is lying awake worrying about a challenge to her leadership,' he added.
'Anybody who is going to contest Kemi or Russell for leadership right now is mad — because the challenges will not change.'
Mr Kerr compared Ms Badenoch to Margaret Thatcher: 'I am old enough to remember our first female leader and the same stuff was being said about her in terms of her role as Leader of the Opposition and her performance and PMQs — and look what happened to her.'
'You know, we have been written off as a party before,' Mr Findlay told The Herald on Sunday.
'There are many people at this conference who have been around for a very long time, and they have seen some pretty dark days.
'And you know what keeps people going? You know that resilience that we all saw in the hall today — it is because we know that what we stand for is right.
'We stand for personal responsibility, lower taxation, fairer taxes for people, integrity and ensuring the very best public services. We want a Scottish Parliament that is entirely focused on delivering for Scotland — not the fringe obsessions of the SNP and Labour.'So we will be fighting for every single vote.'
Murrayfield is used to resilience and fighting talk — it is also, however, no stranger to the wooden spoon, a fate Mr Findlay will be desperae to avoid next May.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Thursday briefing: Labour is betting on an NHS overhaul to deliver real change, but can they pull it off?
Good morning. Wes Streeting's first statement as health secretary was a startling one. Just a day after Labour's historic election triumph, he declared that 'the NHS is broken'. Now, almost exactly a year later, he returns with a 10-year plan to fix it, in what's been billed as the most ambitious health reform agenda in a generation. It's hard to overstate the significance of this moment. Reforming the NHS was central to Labour's election manifesto, and last year prime minister Keir Starmer made the consequences clear: 'Reform or die,' he warned, and with it, staked the next election on his government's ability to deliver meaningful change. NHS leaders, unions, thinktanks, patient groups and other key stakeholders may not agree on every detail, but they are united on one thing: the NHS is in crisis and change is urgently needed. But what exactly is in this plan and will it make a difference? To find out, I spoke to health policy editor Denis Campbell, who has been covering the NHS for two decades. That's after the headlines. UK politics | Downing Street has said Rachel Reeves will keep her post and has not offered her resignation, after the chancellor was seen in tears at prime minister's questions. US news | The federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs reached its conclusion on Wednesday, with the jury finding the music mogul guilty on two charges The government has said that it will seek the maximum 20-year sentence. UK news | Detectives investigating the former nurse Lucy Letby have passed evidence to prosecutors alleging she murdered and harmed more babies, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed on Wednesday. US military | Iran's nuclear program was set back roughly one to two years as a result of the US strikes on three key facilities last month, according to an assessment by the Pentagon. Covid inquiry | Discharging untested patients from hospitals to care homes during the Covid crisis was the 'least worst decision', the former health secretary Matt Hancock has told a public inquiry. At its most basic, the 10-year plan is the Labour government's detailed 150-page blueprint to get the NHS back on its feet after nearly 15 years of serious neglect, Denis Campbell told me. 'It aims to address the fact that the NHS is sadly no longer able to perform its most essential function, which is to give people who need care the care they need, when they need it.' Waiting times are too long for many of the NHS's most vital services, including GP appointments, ambulances, mental health support and surgery. 'The 10-year plan is meant to get the NHS back on its feet in a way that we as patients, voters and taxpayers will appreciate and notice, but crucially, to also modernise the health service, to make it work better and more efficiently to help deal with the fact that we live in a tech-driven age, with an ageing population and the fact that people expect health care to be much more convenient in the way that so many things in life are now,' Denis added. How will it do this? The 10-year plan proposes to do this with three big 'shifts': From hospital-based to community-based care: Services are moved out of hospitals and into community settings like GP surgeries, clinics and the promised new neighbourhood health centres. From analogue to digital: Rely more on digital tools like AI to spot problems early, speed up diagnoses and improve efficiency. From treating illness to preventing it: Focus more on keeping people healthy – by tackling smoking, obesity and misuse of alcohol – instead of just treating illness when it occurs. But, Denis told me, there are many practical questions, particularly on the first shift: 'What will these new centres actually look like? Will they be new places or expansions of existing GP practices? Who will staff them? Is there any money behind this bold vision to make it a reality?' On staffing, the NHS workforce continues to grow in England. 'There are 1.5 million people, but the NHS in England has for many years had roughly about 100,000 vacancies at any one time. So we know the NHS in England does not have the staff it needs already. 'The government is unveiling an ambitious and potentially voter-friendly plan to make the NHS more accessible, responsive, convenient and patient-friendly, with lots of consumer friendly positive language like this,' Denis said. 'But we do have to ask the hard question: if there isn't enough people hired to do what the NHS already does, where will the extra people come from to provide these extra services?' Denis added that while there has been some progress that the 10-year plan can build on, there's still a crisis to accessing care. 'Too many people wait too long. So there's clearly a big job to be done here to make the NHS as accessible as the government is saying,' he said. What has the reception been so far? Denis was being inundated with responses from thinktanks, unions, patient groups, and other stakeholders when I spoke to him. 'Many are welcoming the boldness of the government's vision, but they're questioning the practicality of delivering all of this and the timescale, what will it take to do this?' For many of these stakeholders, much of the plan is appealing, Denis added – who wouldn't want a local neighbourhood health centre where you can get an X-ray or scans, mental health support, pharmacist services and GP appointments? But there is scepticism. Denis groups the criticism into three main concerns: it will take a long time, there's no extra money for new buildings or services and there's not enough bold action on public health. 'This is billed as a 10-year health plan, not just the 10-year NHS plan. The government says it will improve the nation's health. But several thinktanks like the King's Fund are saying it doesn't include enough bold action to tackle the drivers of ill health and the fact we've got an increasingly sick population, particularly through diet and obesity and misuse of alcohol,' Campbell said. He added that the criticism is that there's no equivalent in this plan to past transformative policies like the sugar tax or indoor smoking ban. 'The NHS at the moment is not able to outrun a growing tidal wave of preventable illness that has been lapping at its shores for some years now. We have an ageing population and an increasingly sick population, will this plan make it any more able to cope with this growing burden of illness? At the moment, unfortunately the answer to that question is, 'No'.' Is this the last chance to save the NHS? The prime minister's positing that this is 'reform or die' certainly makes it seem that way, but Campbell suggested that it's a bit hyperbolic. 'The NHS is so deeply embedded in British life that no one is going to replace it with something else. But there is enormous pressure on this government to deliver. Keir Starmer promised transformative change into something people would notice and value,' he said. 'We're a year into this government, and England doesn't yet look much improved. So the pressure on this plan to deliver real, visible improvements quickly is intense. By framing it as 'reform or die' the prime minister is setting a very high bar for success.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion For our Long Wave newsletter (sign up here!), Jason Okundaye has a lovely piece on seeing Glastonbury as a 'white' festival … until he went and saw the depth of Black talent for himself. 'I can honestly say that coming back for a second year felt like coming home,' he writes. Charlie Lindlar, acting deputy editor, newsletters This is a devastating interview with a mother trying to understand how her vulnerable 24-year-old daughter was able to access a pro-suicide forum, and have poison sent to her through the post. It exposes a litany of failures, from state institutions to the absence of effective internet regulation. Aamna Hugh Muir is serving at 120mph in this piece on why Wimbledon is wrong to drop human line judges, and why we can't (and shouldn't want to) seek to eliminate the imperfections that make sport so compelling. Charlie From skipping weddings to mocking each other's music, this roundup of every major feud between the Gallagher brothers since Oasis split in 2009 gave me a proper chuckle. Aamna Our pass notes column breaks down why breaking your morning routine can feel so disruptive to your day. The most important thing to do, of course: make sure you read First Edition … Charlie Tennis | Emma Raducanu stormed past Marketa Vondrousova in her second-round Wimbledon match in two sets, 6-3, 6-3, lining her up to face the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Katie Boulter was knocked out after losing in three sets to the world No 101 Solana Sierra. Cameron Norrie came back from a set down to stun 12th seed Frances Tiafoe. Football | Switzerland were denied a fairytale start to their home Euros as Julia Stierli's own goal ultimately settled a 2-1 victory for Norway. Finland secured their first victory of the tournament in 16 years with a narrow 1-0 win against 10-player Iceland, thanks to Katariina Kosola's superb second-half strike. Cricket | India closed day one of the second men's test match with England at Edgbaston with 310 runs for 5 wickets, as Shubman Gill's scored his second century of the series. Rishabh Pant was also a standout, swapping his usual scatterbrain batting for notable self-control, restricting himself to just one glorious four and a single crisp six in the 60 minutes he was at the crease. Rachel Reeves crying on the frontbench at prime minister's questions after Labour's stunning welfare climbdown is on a number of front pages today. The Guardian splashes on 'Tears and turmoil as PM forced to defend Reeves after welfare fiasco,' the Telegraph has 'Pound falls after Reeves's tears,' the FT leads with 'Gilts and pound slump after Reeves' tears trigger fears for fiscal vigilance,' while the i Paper has 'Reeves future in doubt after tearful PMQs.' The Metro goes with 'Tears & jeers for Starmer,' the Daily Mail asks 'What – or who – caused the tears that sparked turmoil in the markets?' while the Sun splashes on 'I'm under so much pressure,' referring to what Reeves' said before her tearful moment. The Mirror was the outlier, splashing on 'Kate: My rollercoaster recovery' on the princess's experience after cancer treatment. The truth about Iran's nuclear programme After 12 days of bombing by Israel and the US last month, opinions vary about the extent of the damage caused to Iran's nuclear facilities. The Guardian's diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, and Rouzbeh Parsi, a historian who studies Iran's nuclear programme, tell Michael Safi what could happen next. A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad If you have an idea to bring your community together over a project, we have some tips for you. Start with a short, clear and engaging story that explains what you're doing and why it matters. Build your support from friends, neighbours, and local groups first. Pick a crowdfunding platform that fits your needs (and watch out for hidden fees). Seek grants and build partnerships with trusted local organisations to boost your credibility and resources. Use your passion to just go for it, and see what you can build. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
The Herald Scotland
42 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Yes, it's time for change, Sir Keir: time for you to go
Ruth Marr, Stirling. • We are already waiting for any (even one) of Anas Sarwar's election promises from 2024 to come true, and yet here he goes again in a desperate bid to stay relevant: 'no tax hikes if Labour win in Scotland' ("No Scots income tax rise if Labour wins, insists Sarwar", The Herald, July 2). The fiscal position in both the UK and Scotland make this assertion difficult, if not impossible to sustain, as the IFS states 'since departmental spending plans are locked in and the Government has had to row back on planned cuts to pensioner and working age benefits, tax rises seem increasingly likely' ("Welfare U-turn raises questions over Labour's tax plans", heraldscotland, July 2). Given Mr Sarwar's record on promises I know who I believe. GR Weir, Ochiltree. Read more letters John Swinney's woolly words Two articles on facing pages today (July 1) are an interesting contrast in style and content. The First Minister's contribution ("'There is nothing wrong in Scotland that cannot be fixed'") is to my (admittedly unsympathetic) eye a blancmange of aspirations and largely unfulfilled, or at least untested, promises (and, Mr Swinney, the baby boxes are a sorely over-used example of something actually done). Kevin McKenna's piece ("We are being softened up to no longer believe in the sanctity of life") about assisted dying is, in contrast, clear and unequivocal. The difference between them, which to me is crucial, is that everything the First Minister says is theoretically achievable and measurable (though not by the current administration) and is, by any standard, aimed at the common good for all of the people. Mr McKenna uses the ideology of a single and highly-organised group in society to argue for an outcome which, equally, would affect us all and, for me, would take away the right to decide when life had become unbearable. It seems wrong that the untestable and so unverifiable beliefs of that one portion of our society should be allowed to have a disproportionate influence on this or any other article of legislation of such importance. The First Minister's words are woolly but lacking in harm: Mr McKenna's, better expressed though they may be, are potentially dangerous to our democratic process. Bryan Chrystal, Edinburgh. The lesson of Ukraine Stan Grodynski (Letters, July 2) continues to write from the independent state of La La Land. His belief that an independent Scotland would not require to defend itself is counter to the fact that Scotland is essential in the defence of the gateway to the North Atlantic and the North Sea, both strategically important routes commercially and militarilly. Mr Grodynski might look to the Crimean peninsula for a good example of a very similar situation where Ukraine, in a referendum, relinquished its 30% of the USSR's nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees. Those guarantees have been proven worthless by President Putin and the rest, as they say, is history. Peter Wright, West Kilbride. • Stan Grodynski is clearly an unhappy man, with a long list of grievances about the UK in general and the Westminster Government in particular. There is however one goodish aspect of Britain that he might like to consider, which is that he can spout his nonsense on one day, and will still be at the same address the next day. Malcolm Parkin, Kinross. Veiled allusion In 2014 we were promised the earth and all that is in it. Rishi Sunak vowed to lead us to sunlit uplands. Today a 'socialist' government lurches from one disaster to the next and London-based newspapers are seeking any number of heads to roll. The outgoing chief of the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned that the state pension triple lock should be scrapped as soon as possible. I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's story about the woman of some mature years who walked into a bridalwear shop. An assistant asked: 'How can I help you?' "I would like a dress for my fourth wedding." "What sort of dress exactly?" "Oh, virgin white, veil and a long train – the full works." As delicately as possible the assistant inquired as to whether that would be appropriate for a fourth-time bride. "Oh, I'm just as entitled as a first-time bride." "How so?" inquired the assistant. "Well my first husband got so excited at the wedding, he collapsed and died of a heart attack." "I'm sorry to hear that. And the second?" "We had a heated argument on the way to the reception and never spoke again." "Oh dear. And the third?" "The marriage was never consummated." "Never consummated?" "He was a unionist. He just sat on the edge of the bed each night saying how great it was going to be." Alan Carmichael, Glasgow. IDF are the terrorists As I sign a petition to allow baby food into Gaza (with no hope it will make a difference) and watch coverage of yet more atrocities committed by the Israeli Defence Force, the British Establishment continues to try to squeeze the last drops of faux rage out of the comments of a couple of musicians. Hundreds of unarmed Palestinians are shot every week queuing for food because the Israeli state backed by the US closed down 400 food distribution centres run by experienced independent agencies and replaced them with four distribution centres. A reputable Israeli newspaper has reported that soldiers were told to use live ammunition to help control crowds. This is the Hunger Games added to the destruction of all schools, hospitals and homes. The rap duo at Glastonbury were wrong to shout for anyone to be killed. They should have been shouting "The IDF is a terrorist organisation". There is no other way you could describe an organisation that has carried out the atrocities it is guilty of. But British senior politicians and sections of the media want to divert attention from the horrifying reality with the trivia of paint on planes and music festival chants. And let us expose the antisemitism claim for what it really is. It has been used for years to bully people who criticise the actions of the Israeli state. It no longer works. Too many people see the reality and those who continue to use it need to question their own ethics. We know that there are many honourable people of Jewish ethnicity in and outwith Israel who are also strong critics of the government of that state. Isobel Lindsay, Biggar. What did Benjamin Netanyahu know in advance of the October 7 attack? (Image: PA) • Otto Inglis (Letters, July 1) is correct in reminding us of atrocities committed at that other music festival on October 7, 2023. What he chooses to ignore is the apparent complicity of Prime Minister Netanyahu, a situation now generally accepted, even by many of his Israeli subjects. Over a period of weeks he is known to have received information from frontier guards who saw, and heard through increased wireless activity, the necessary extensive preparations for the attack. Information is also said to have come from Egypt. In spite of the repeated warnings, frontier defences at that crucial point were not strengthened. The Prime Minister's craven response, which incidentally involved betrayal of the hostages, appears to have been made in relation to a number of current personal and political problems. But, from a longer perspective, the vastly exaggerated retaliation and unprecedented slaughter in modern times of thousands of innocent civilians, especially the children who would have formed a future Palestinian Gaza, helped to further his personal aim as founder of a greater Israel. Further proof of the real situation on October 7 and determination to distance themselves is provided by the resignations, soon after the event, of three top generals and the head of Shin Bhet, on the basis of "not on my watch." Why does our own Prime Minister, after those months of slaughter, not have the courage to join so many of us in saying the same? Murdo Grant, Rosemarkie.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
UK lawmakers approve ban of Palestine Action as terrorist group
LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, after its activists broke into a military base and damaged two planes in protest at what it says is Britain's support for Israel. Palestine Action, which describes itself as a direct action movement that uses disruptive methods, has routinely targeted companies in Britain with links to Israel, including Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems ( opens new tab, which it has called its "main target". Britain's Labour government accused the group of causing millions of pounds of damage through action at a Thales ( opens new tab factory in 2022, an Elbit site last year and at the Royal Air Force base in southern England last month - the trigger for the decision to ban, or proscribe, the group. Proscription would officially designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation on a par with Islamic State or al Qaeda under British law, making it a crime to support or belong to the groups. Britain's proscription order will reach parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday. If approved by lawmakers there, Palestine Action's ban would become effective in the following days. The group, which has called its proscription unjustified and an "abuse of power," has challenged the decision in court and an urgent hearing is expected on Friday. United Nations experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council have urged Britain to reconsider its move, arguing that acts of property damage without the intention to endanger life should not be considered terrorism. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Britain's interior minister, says that violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest, and that a zero-tolerance approach was necessary for national security. On Tuesday, the group said its activists had blocked the entrance to an Elbit site in Bristol, southwestern England, and that other members had occupied the rooftop of a subcontracting firm in Suffolk, eastern England, it said had links to Elbit. Israel has repeatedly denied committing abuses in its war in Gaza, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. In addition to Palestine Action, the proscription order approved by Britain's parliament includes neo-Nazi group Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement, a white supremacist group which seeks to create a new Russian imperial state. The vote on the three groups was taken together, meaning all three had to be banned or none of them.
