The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Tories get new scrutiny roles
Two north-east Conservative MPs have joined Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee.
Aberdeen South MP Ross Thomson and Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid will have their first meeting today.
They join a brace of other Tories, three SNP, three Labour and one Lib Dem on the committee, made up of Scottish members to scrutinise the expenditure and policies of the Scotland Office and relations with Holyrood.
Mr Duguid said he was pleased to bring another Conservative voice to the group, which he said had previously been “dominated” by the SNP.
He said: “Brexit will be the big issue and I will probably bring fishing to the table and keep fishing and farming high on the agenda. EU citizenship is one of the issues landing in my inbox, not just from constituents, but also employers as EU citizens make up a major part of their workforce.”
Mr Thomson insisted he would continue to bang the drum for Aberdeen and the offshore industry. He said: “The programme for the committee has not yet been set, but I would expect to us to cover Brexit and I would hope to explore some of the huge opportunities for locally-based companies to benefit from future trade deals between the UK and countries across the globe.”