Tory infighting has begun in Scotland as the party prepares to slip to third place in the local elections in what one frontbencher admitted are “disappointing” results.
Under the popular Ruth Davidson, the Conservatives displaced Labour as the most popular Unionist party – but have lost more than 10 per cent of their vote in some wards, in early results.
The elections guru John Curtice forecast that, while the Tory party had escaped its “worst nightmares” in England, it looked “highly likely that its fears north of the border will be realised”.
Miles Briggs, a frontbencher at the Holyrood parliament, said his party had suffered from anger over the Partygate scandal and the fine handed to Boris Johnson for breaching his own Covid rules.
He said voters had refused to cast their ballots in the main, rather than switching to other parties, but admitted: “There’s some good news but it’s really disappointing.”
Asked about the impact of the No 10 parties, Mr Briggs said: “Yes I think that’s part of it. You can’t deny that and I think, speaking to people yesterday, they certainly weren’t happy with the actions of the prime minster and his team.”
But one former Conservative member of the Scottish parliament called that “nonsense” and instead turned his fire on flip-flopping by Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader.
Mr Ross was one of the first Tory MPs to call on Mr Johnson to quit over the scandal – but then withdraw his letter demanding a no-vote confidence, after the Ukraine war broke out.
“Whatever today’s results show Douglas Ross owns this, not Boris,” Adam Tomkins, a constitutional lawyer at the University of Glasgow, tweeted.
“It was Douglas who U-turned, Douglas who flipped, and Douglas who backed the PM. He and his team need to own the consequences, not pass the buck.”
The Scottish National Party is certain to win the elections, maintaining its iron grip on the nation’s politics as it pushes for s second independence referendum next year.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said: “The Tories are being rejected. Their vote is down and I think what really is important today is that the voters have sent a message to Boris Johnson.”
However, on Glasgow City Council, the SNP leader was overtaken by the Scottish Greens on first preference votes in the city’s Langside ward.
Susan Aitken suggested the co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Greens at Holyrood may have led to the surprise result in her ward.
Scottish Labour took overall control of West Dunbartonshire Council – unseating minority SNP rule – after the proportional voting system left no party with a majority in any local authority area after the last elections, in 2017.
Voters were electing more than 1,220 councillors across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, against a backdrop of the SNP’s commanding poll lead of around 45 per cent of the vote.
