Leading fight for Union, the 2021 Conservative team
MANY of the top Scottish Tory candidates survived the election and will serve for another five years – but a series of new faces will also enter Holyrood.
Former leader Jackson Carlaw was one of only five Tory MSPs re-elected after winning their constituency, after he held off the SNP for a second time in Eastwood. Alexander Burnett’s Aberdeenshire West win was pivotal in stopping an SNP a majority.
Other Tories who held on include Oliver Mundell, who beat high-profile SNP candidate Joan McAlpine in Dumfriesshire.
Rachael Hamilton resoundingly defeated Paul Wheelhouse in Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, and Finlay Carson held Galloway and West Dumfries. Others back on the regional list include frontbenchers Liam Kerr, Annie Wells, Maurice Golden, Murdo Fraser, Liz Smith, Jamie Greene, Dean Lockhart and Graham Simpson. Newly elected MSPs include leader Douglas Ross, former spin doctor Russell Findlay, ex-GP Sandesh Gulhane, former journalist Craig Hoy, and former councillors Douglas Lumsden and Megan Gallacher.
But three of the party’s MSPs from the last term failed to get elected: long-serving Ayr MSP John Scott, as well as Gordon Lindhurst and Maurice Corry.
Mr Ross said yesterday: ‘We won stunning victories in constituencies and came so close to winning even more. I’m sorry that our colleagues Gordon Lindhurst and Maurice Corry did not get returned and I thank them for their service. And it was deeply disappointing to lose John Scott. His community and our parliament will be the poorer for him not being returned.’