Councillor ‘exiled’ from Argyll Tories

A Kintyre councillor says he has been expelled from the Conservative group of Argyll and Bute councillors, but not from the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party.

In December last year, South Kintyre councillor Tommy MacPherson resigned from Argyll and Bute Council’s ruling administration, sitting as an ‘independent unionist’, after being suspended from the authority’s Conservative group.

Councillor Macpherson, who was only elected as a ward councillor in May 2022, quit the Argyll, Lomond and Islands Group (TALIG) – a coalition of

Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and some independents – after expressing “serious misgivings” about how it operated.

A hearing was due in January, when Councillor MacPherson said he could put his views “as to why this suspension should not be made a permanent expulsion”.

This week, Councillor Tommy MacPherson said: “I’ve been exiled from Argyll Conservative Group, yet remain a Conservative Unionist member and councillor.”

He said the leader of TALIG’s Conservative group, Councillor Gary Mulvaney, told him: “Further to our conversation regarding your suspension from the Conservative Group of councillors on Argyll and Bute Council, I can advise that you are no longer a member of that group.

“You of course remain a Conservative Party member and are bound by its rules and code of conduct as are all members.

“I wish you the best in the future and even though you are now outside the group, as a fellow Conservative, my doors remain open for advice and support.”

Councillor MacPherson confirmed he is again sitting as a Scottish Conservative Unionist councillor for South Kintyre, rather than as an “independent unionist”.