Scottish Tories ponder severance
A senior Scottish Conservative has suggested that the party in Scotland should sever ties from its Westminster base.
Murdo Fraser, enterprise spokesman and MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, said the idea would end the view that Scottish Tories were just members of “an English party”.
The comments come after North Wiltshire MP James Gray was forced to resign as Shadow Scotland Secretary after he stoked the ire of senior Scottish Tories by suggesting MSPs should be axed and Scottish MPs deal with devolved matters.
Mr Fraser – tipped to be the next leader of the Scottish Tories – said his party could create a stronger identity as a “separate party separately funded with separate responsibility for policy”.
MSP Brian Monteith concurred with the idea. He told the BBC: “I think we have to strengthen the perception that Scottish Conservatives are indeed Scottish and have Scotland’s interests at heart.
“If that means raising our own money, being more independent, in fact being entirely independent from the British party, then we have to do that, if that’s what it takes to win elections.”
But the idea did not find favour with Bill Aitken, the party’s chief whip in Edinburgh.
“We do have this degree of independence of action which is not appreciated by the public, we have got to get that message home to them,” Mr Aitken said.
But Francis Maude, Tory chairman, said the plan was worth some consideration.
“There is the idea of the Scottish Tories becoming completely independent, similar to the relationship the CSU has with the CDU. It’s not an absurd idea,” he said.
This is the German conservative model whereby Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) co-operates with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The CSU operates only in Bavaria, which the CDU does not contest, and the CDU fights elections across Germany.
