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Dr Robert Kilgour is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur, investor, property developer and philanthropist. He is Chief Executive of Dow Investments Plc and founder of Scottish Business UK.
In the 2011 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party leadership contest, I strongly supported Murdo Fraser’s campaign. Personally, I still have a lot of time for Murdo and he has served the party very well over many years.
But in this contest, I have switched my support to Russell Findlay, because I firmly believe that he has the fresh thinking, vision and character to lead the party forward.
He has worked the hardest in this contest to get out and speak with party members, reach out to our supporters and the public, and set out the new ideas that the party needs. No other candidate has held anywhere near the number of events with members or set out as many policy proposals.
I am proud to support Russell in his ambitions and aspirations for the Scottish party to focus more on providing positive solutions to improve people’s everyday lives.
He is a straightforward, straight talking, straight shooting, no nonsense politician with both courage and character – just what we need in Scotland just now; a man who seems to possess a clear and positive vision about what our priorities should be.
I agree with him that we need to be laser focused on our detailed scrutiny of the current Scottish Government’s performance in its main ‘day job’: delivering better public services, without all their recent expensive and unnecessary distractions.
He has set out exciting and bold new proposals to fix the housing crisis, improve our economy and restore Scotland’s education system. I am very confident that Russell is the best person to take the party forward, and I will support him in any way I can.
But, as well as those positive reasons for supporting Russell, I have to say some of Murdo’s actions in the leadership contest have perplexed me.
His supporters spent several weeks saying, quite rightly, that the party should have a contest, not a coronation, so that members could have their say in deciding on the next leader. Then, at his campaign launch, Murdo demanded that Russell and Meghan Gallacher, the other candidate, step aside and give him a coronation.
This would deprive members of a vote and would give them no say in the future of the party – leaving them without a voice. It would be entirely wrong for any candidate to receive such a coronation. The leader of our party should be decided on by our members, not by a small group of MSPs at Holyrood.
To make this even more baffling, this happened weeks after Russell had already gained the support of a large number of councillors, MSPs, and MPs. Since then, he has won the support of all five Scottish Conservative MPs, more MSPs than any other candidate, and dozens of councillors too.
Yet Murdo suggested that Russell should still drop out while in that position. That, I’m sorry to say, reeked of arrogance.
Nobody has a divine right to be elected as our leader. They must earn it, and Russell has done that by going all over the country to share his ideas and to listen to our members.
Nor is that all that has baffled me about Murdo’s leadership bid. I’ve watched elements of it with a mixture of shock, disbelief, disappointment, and genuine sadness. It has looked very amateur and sadly, none of it has not appeared like a grown-up strategy for such an important election at such a key time.
There’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes amateur shenanigans, with a very small group of MSPs apparently concocting plans to run paper campaigns, knowing the whole time that they would drop out to back Murdo.
Instead of just running a positive campaign, as Russell has done the whole time, they decided that was too much like hard work and chose instead to attempt to stitch-up the contest and create a false impression to party members.
If that group of MSPs wanted to back Murdo, they were perfectly entitled to do so. But to pretend to be running a campaign, purely for appearances, is silly and childish.
After this contest, and no matter who wins, these elected officials must come together and stop playing games. It’s absolutely vital that our party unites behind the next leader. This is too important a moment in Scottish politics: the SNP are on the ropes, Labour appear to be resurgent, and Reform UK is threatening our right flank.
The next leader must bring Conservatives together and unite our party at every level behind a serious but positive message that connects with the public. For me, the only choice is Russell Findlay.
He has the determination and drive that a leader needs. He knows the scale of the challenge facing our party and he’s got the resolve to do what’s right and get us winning again in Scotland. I will be voting for him – and I hope you do so too.
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