Union Flag stilettos and saxes... meet Team Ruth

FROM the saxophone-playing Nigerian to the young woman sporting Union Flag stilettos, a new wave of Conservatives has swept Scotland.

Some, such as 20-year-old Thomas Kerr, have been elected in areas that had not voted Tory in living memory.

Rivals were stunned to see Conservatives elected in places such as Paisley’s Ferguslie Park, Glasgow Shettleston and Ravenscraig, Lanarkshire.

But the young candidates who had spent months knocking on doors knew change was coming.

Meghan Gallagher, 25, a politics graduate whose Union Flag heels grabbed attention at Friday’s count, has dreams of becoming Prime Minister, but will focus on the needs of Motherwell West for now.

She said: ‘I’m just overwhelmed and honoured to be elected.

‘I do have aspirations but being a councillor is my priority and will be for the next five to ten years.’

Like Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, Miss Gallagher is miles from the ‘male, pale and stale’ Tory caricature of a few years ago. She said: ‘I want to be approachable – that normal person walking down the street who anyone can come to with a problem.’

Mr Kerr grew up in one of Scotland’s poorest neighbourhoods and it inspired him to get elected in his backyard of Shettleston.

He said: ‘I had a tough upbringing in Cranhill, growing up in a poor working-class background with a lot of people on benefits, lots of drug addicts and alcoholics. My community and family got me through all that, so I want to pay Meghan Gallagher won in Motherwell