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Murdo Fraser, Meghan Gallacher and Russell Findlay are in the running.
The new leader of the Scottish Conservatives will be announced in Edinburgh on Friday.
The three candidates are Justice Department spokesperson Russell Findlay, long-serving MSP Murdo Fraser and former deputy leader Meghan Gallacher.
The winner will take over from Douglas Ross following a leadership contest that began in early June.
An unofficial starting gun was fired during the UK general election when Mr Ross announced his plans to resign.
Six MSPs started the race, but Brian Whittle, Jamie Green and Liam Kerr withdrew in favor of Murdo Fraser.
Politicians are rarely handed the reins of their party when things are looking rosy, but the next leader of the Scottish Conservatives really has his work cut out for him.
First of all, this contest was – to say the least – moody.
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Douglas Ross announced his intention to resign during the election period.
Privately, it is not difficult to get Scottish Conservative politicians to tell me why they believe a particular candidate will be a disaster for the party.
This speaks volumes about how bitter this contest has become.
The acrimony probably peaked last month when Megan Gallacher resigned as deputy leader of the party.
He said this was prompted by “allegations” that Douglas Ross had previously indicated that he wanted Russell Findlay to replace him.
On the very same day, four other candidates signed a joint statement (which Mr. Findlay was not asked to sign) that questioned the “transparency and fairness” of the contest.
Mr Gallasher’s relationship with one of the party’s top MPs, shadow Scottish secretary John Lamont, has been particularly strained.
She made a formal complaint to the party about his conduct.
Lamont claimed the former deputy leader called members to tell them he planned to withdraw from the contest and threatened legal action.
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Megan Gallacher resigned as party deputy leader last month.
There were also shots fired between the candidates.
In an STV debate, Murdo Fraser accused Russell Findlay of being an “establishment candidate”. Russell Findlay rejected this as “fanciful”.
We could spend much of this article outlining other cases of infighting.
Parties are not fun places. In this contest, the team is divided into multiple factions, and the new leader’s first task will be to bring the team back together.
That’s not the only internal issue.
As part of this leadership story, it was revealed that the Scottish Conservative Party only has around 7,000 members. By the way, this is less than the Scottish Greens (which has a much smaller number of MSPs).
Come election time, these are the door-knockers, sidewalk-bangers, and leaflet-handers who are the lifeblood of any political campaign.
New leaders will want to build on this foundation. But how do you convince more people to sign up and pay monthly membership fees? That’s the real challenge.
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Murdo Fraser is backed by three past runners in the contest
There are other issues that require immediate attention.
The Scottish Conservatives’ electoral prospects look pretty grim at the moment.
It lost just one seat in the recent general election, but its vote share fell to less than 13%.
They may be losing their (more or less) monopoly on the rights of Scottish politics.
Nigel Farage’s Reform Party would have overtaken them in every seat in Glasgow in that election, and likely lost important seats in north Aberdeenshire and east Moray.
The electoral landscape is not currently developing in the Scottish Conservatives’ favor.
The issue of a second independence referendum appears to be further down the agenda for the time being. This poses another problem.
Their staunch opposition to a review of the independence issue won them votes and helped them leapfrog Labor to become the largest opposition party at Holyrood.
However, with Labor appearing to be on the rise, he feels the Conservatives are likely to suffer a setback in the 2026 Scottish general election.
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Russell Findlay branded ‘establishment candidate’ by Murdo Fraser
As if this wasn’t enough for the next leader, they’ll likely be writing a jam-packed diary as soon as they take over the job.
Their Majesties will meet the King and Queen on Saturday at an event to mark the Scottish Parliament’s 25th anniversary, and will address the UK Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
For many in the Scottish Conservative Party, the end of this campaign cannot come soon enough.
All candidates appear to be hoping to end a summer of bickering, bickering, and anonymous press conferences.
But whoever wins, the long road to leadership may soon prove to be nothing compared to the struggle leading up to the 2026 elections.
