Murdo Fraser enters Scottish Tory leadership contest

Murdo Fraser is standing to be the next leader of the Scottish Conservatives, the MSP has confirmed.

Saying that party members and voters had been “let down” by the leadership at Scottish and UK level in recent years, Fraser said he will deliver “real reform”.

But he confirmed this would not mean a proposal to split the party from its UK counterpart, as he advocated in a previous leadership contest.

He is the sixth candidate to declare, joining Jamie Greene, Liam Kerr, Meghan Gallacher, Brian Whittle and Russell Findlay.

Nominations open on Thursday and candidates must secure the backing of 100 members by 22 August to appear on the ballot paper.

Voting will take place throughout September and the winner will be announced in 27 September.

The contest was sparked by the resignation of Douglas Ross in the middle of the general election campaign, partly stemming from discontent with his decision to run for a Westminster seat in place of sitting MP David Duguid, who had been hospitalised.

Fraser ran for the leadership of the party in 2011, when he narrowly lost out to Ruth Davidson.

Writing in The Scotsman, he said: “This is not my first attempt to lead my party. But it is my most important. This party is fractured. It is unhappy. It is vulnerable. Continuity won’t cut it. The days of a tiny group holding the power which should belong to the members must end.

“Only I can end that. When I say I want to change the party, it is not just a campaign slogan, I mean it.”

He has been an MSP since 2001 and has held a number of frontbench positions. He was also deputy leader between 2005 and 2011 under Annabel Goldie.