2011 Scottish Conservatives leadership election

Following the 2010 general election, David Cameron's Conservatives were the largest party and subsequently formed a government through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. In Scotland, however, the party had gained no seats, and David Mundell remained the party's only Scottish MP. A committee then was established to analyse the situation, headed by Lord Sanderson, with Lord Forsyth also contributing.

The Sanderson Commission outlined these recommendations:[2]

• Elect a Scottish leader to have overall responsibility for the Party's performance in Scotland.
• Replace the weak leadership and governance framework with a streamlined, transparent and accountable structure.
• Create regional campaign centres staffed by campaign professionals.
• Increase support and resources for the local association network.
• Develop a clear vision for Scotland, one distinct from that of the Scottish Conservatives.
• Engage the entire party and wider Scotland in policy development - and recruit a chief policy adviser.
• Introduce balloted motions and open debate at party conferences.
• Overhaul candidate selection and development - and reform the then-current ranking process for regional list MSPs.
• Establish a process to identify and develop future party leaders.
• Contest every local government seat throughout Scotland.
• Launch a new fundraising and membership drive across Scotland.
• Provide an annual grant to Conservative Future Scotland to help develop the party's youth wing.

The commission also stated the need to hold a leadership election after the Scottish parliamentary election, as no leadership election by that point had been held by the Scottish Conservatives. Both David McLetchie and Annabel Goldie were selected as leaders with no ballot taking place.

For the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the party campaigned on what it called 'common sense for Scotland' and outlined the requirement to re-introduce university tuition fees and prescription charges, and emphasized what the party had helped pass through parliament as a minority force in the period from 2007 to 2011: 1,000 extra police officers, a four-year council tax freeze and a £60m town regeneration fund.[3]

In the election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) under Alex Salmond won an unprecedented majority of seats, gaining 69 of the 129 available. The Conservative result was self-described as 'disappointing', as the party was reduced from 17 seats to 15. The party lost three of its six notionally-held constituency seats, including former party leader David McLetchie in Edinburgh Pentlands and Jackson Carlaw in Eastwood, although both individuals later returned to parliament on the regional list. Whilst the Conservatives could take comfort knowing that their losses were slight compared to those suffered by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Annabel Goldie announced her resignation as party leader four days after the election.

Jackson Carlaw had been MSP for the West Scotland region since 2007 and was the then party spokesman on energy, transport and climate change. He was previously the deputy chairman of the Scottish Conservatives, chairman of the party's youth wing, Conservative Future Scotland, and board member of the UK-wide Conservatives. He had unsuccessfully contested the Scottish Parliament constituency of Eastwood three times, holding a notional majority of over 3,500 votes on the third occasion.[19] He was the first contender to declare their candidacy, on 10 August 2011, and launched his campaign on 2 September.

Carlaw was described as being on the right of the party, and was against transferring further powers to Holyrood.[20] Upon launching his campaign, he declared that the referendum on Scottish independence should take place before any discussion over further devolution.[21] He also declared that he was the "unity option" for party members.[22]

Murdo Fraser had been MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife since 2001, party spokesman on health and the deputy leader of the party between 2005–11. A former chairman of the Scottish Young Conservatives (1989–92), he unsuccessfully contested the seat of Tayside North five times at the Scottish and Westminster elections. He belonged to the Conservative Christian Fellowship, the Scotland Malawi Partnership and had been Parliamentary Advisor to the Autism Treatment Trust.[23] Fraser declared his candidacy on 26 August.[24]

Regarded as being to the right of the party, Fraser supported greater tax and spending powers for the Scottish Parliament in the form of further financial devolution.[25] On 1 September, Fraser outlined his vision for 'New Unionism', with the intention of 'killing independence' and then 'break[ing] the SNP'. He stated his rejection of full fiscal autonomy for Scotland, calling it 'independence in disguise', but pledged support for financial devolution, which he claimed would make Parliament more accountable for the money it spends.[26] On 4 September, Fraser made a high-profile announcement, that if elected, he would disband the party in favour of setting up a new centre-right party fully autonomous of the UK Conservative Party, but would take the Conservative whip at Westminster. Fraser stated that this would be done to 'de-toxify' the party in Scotland, saying that it would have a distinct Scottish identity, would represent Scottish values, would support devolution and decentralisation, and would fight to maintain Scotland's place within the United Kingdom. He also would rename the party – dropping the name 'Conservative' – with possible new names cited as Scottish Reform Party, Scottish Unionists, The Scottish Progressives, the Progressive Conservatives, Scotland First, Scotland Forward, Caledonian Party or The Caledonians.[27] The name 'Unionist' was downplayed, so as to avoid connotation to Northern Ireland sectarianism, and because a smaller Scottish Unionist Party also existed, this rendered a change to this name impossible under electoral law.

The plan would see a return to the situation of conservatism in Scotland between 1912 and 1965, when the Scottish Unionist Party was completely autonomous of the Conservative Party in England and Wales, but took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and even contributed two UK Prime Ministers: Bonar Law and Alec Douglas-Home. Fraser noted that during this time the then-known Unionists achieved their best result in Scotland; in 1955, they won more seats than Labour, and took over 50% of the vote, a feat that no political party had achieved in a Scottish election since. However, after the events of 1965, when the Unionist Party merged into the UK-wide Conservative Party, the party began a decline which culminated in the loss of all Scottish Conservative seats in 1997. Fraser also cited examples of the situation existing successfully in other countries, for instance the centre-right Christian Social Union of Bavaria took the whip of the German Christian Democratic Union in the German parliament, but maintained autonomy as a party.

On 11 October Fraser outlined ten pledges to fulfill, shown below, were he to win the contest:[28]

• Hold monthly conference calls with constituency association chairmen.
• Hold regular 'candidate conferences' to ensure that candidates receive the support they need.
• Restore real debate and votes on policy at Party Conferences.
• Develop a new national and local media strategy to ensure that the party would obtain greater coverage.
• Introduce a national and local online and social media strategy to raise the party profile and take its message to younger voters in particular.
• Work closely with the youth wing in the party and target younger professionals to become voters, members and candidates.
• Set up a special committee to organise fundraising for all campaigns throughout Scotland.
• Establish national policy groups with experts from both inside and outside the party, and give every constituency the opportunity to provide input to these groups.
• Establish an annual awards programme to recognise outstanding effort by associations, candidates and individuals.
• Visit every constituency at least once a year.

Fraser declared his opposition to the centralisation of Scottish police forces on 25 October, saying: "Such a centralisation of power is incompatible with a belief in localism that is common across western European centre-right parties".[29]

Ruth Davidson had been MSP for the Glasgow region since 2011 and party spokeswoman on culture. She formerly contested the Westminster seat of Glasgow East at a by-election in 2009 and at the 2010 General Election. Davidson declared her candidacy on 4 September, the same day that Murdo Fraser made his pitch to disband the Scottish Conservatives and start up a new party.

Davidson was described as more politically moderate than her main opponents[20] and she opposed the notion of Scottish Conservatives separating from the UK-wide party and renaming itself.[30]

A former Justice of the Peace, Mitchell had represented the Central Scotland region in the Scottish Parliament since 2003. She declared in July her support for Lord Forsyth, however Forsyth declared his backing for another candidate in September. On the day of nominations closing on 23 September, Mitchell declared that she would stand in the contest, having received the necessary 100 nominations.

She opposed the Scotland Bill 2011, calling its proposal to vary tax by 10p as 'crazy', and voiced opposition to the idea of Scottish Conservatives disbanding into a new centre-right party.[31]

• John Lamont – MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh & Berwickshire and party spokesman on justice. Lamont had strongly hinted that he would run for the leadership, shortly after the Scottish parliament elections.[32] However, in June 2010, Lamont attacked the system of state-funded Roman Catholic education in west-central Scotland, reportedly 'self-destructing' his chances of standing for leadership.[25] In August 2011, he confirmed that he would not stand in the contest and eventually lent his backing to Ruth Davidson.[33]
• Gavin Brown – then-MSP for the Lothian region since 2007, and party spokesman on the economy.[34] On 1 September, Brown stated that, after consideration, he would not stand in the contest and declared his support for Murdo Fraser.[7]
• Alex Fergusson – then-MSP for Galloway & West Dumfries and former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. Fergusson ruled out any prospect of him standing for leadership on election night, saying that he was 'too old' and eventually backed Murdo Fraser.[35]
• Annabel Goldie – Former party leader (2005–11) and MSP for West of Scotland.[34] Goldie confirmed during her resignation, that she would not contest the forthcoming leadership election.
• Michael Forsyth – Former Secretary of State for Scotland under John Major (1995–97) and MP for Stirling (1983–97), now sits in the House of Lords as 'Baron Forsyth of Drumlean'. Margaret Mitchell had said she would support him if he stood in the contest,[36][37] however on 11 September, Forsyth declared his backing for Ruth Davidson and Mitchell went on to declare her own candidacy.

In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the Conservatives gained 16 MSPs, beating the Labour Party into third place. Ruth Davidson subsequently became the leader of the second largest party in the Parliament; Murdo Fraser was appointed Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and Jackson Carlaw was appointed as party Deputy Leader, as well as the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs

In the 2017 UK general election, the Scottish Conservatives gained 12 seats from the SNP, including Alex Salmond (former First Minister and Leader of the SNP) and Angus Robertson (Deputy Leader of the SNP).