Monday, June 6

Tory upset in Scotland


A leading Scottish Conservative official, who described the party's election campaign north of the border as "absolutely appalling", has quit after her comments were leaked to colleagues.

On May 5 the party won one seat out of 59 in Scotland, the same as in 2001.

The paper is quoted as saying: "I wasn’t obliged to produce a report; I felt compelled to write one. I have never felt so strongly as I did about the result on May 5. It was a disaster."

She claimed members had been "wilfully ignored" by the party leadership in Edinburgh, and said the party's executive had used the report to force her out.
"The central culture of the party in Scotland has a decaying core which any sensible organisation would immediately remove," she said.
Allies of party chief David McLetchie described her as "a loose cannon". They said the criticisms would be ignored by the membership.

One ally of the leadership dismissed the comments in the dossier as "the ravings of a woman who was sidelined during the campaign".

Goodman told colleagues in an email: "I resigned with great sadness, but having found myself in an impossible situation where the voluntary sector of the party are largely treated as superfluous, a resonating statement was needed."

The Times claims that the favourite to replace her as vice-chairman of the party in Scotland is Jackson Carlaw, a long-time activist who had to issue a public apology after making racist remarks at a Glasgow election event in April attended by Michael Howard.

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