Chair of Scottish Tory committee: Anti-gay, anti-devolution, pro tax havens

Critics of the Scottish Conservative Party’s newly established review into its operations north of the border should “put up or shut up” according to the party’s sole MP in Scotland and Scotland Office minister, David Mundell. Many within the Conservatives have dubbed those leading the review as being akin to a “dads army” and too close to the Scottish leadership for it to be effective.

The committee’s chairman, Lord Sanderson, has caused particular concern for many:

• Following his appointment, Lord Sanderson concluded that Margaret Thatcher’s reign as prime minister was “not particularly bad” for Scotland;

• The Scotsman has reported that he has a voting history in Parliament of opposition to gay rights;

• In 2006 he praised tax havens, telling the House of Lords, “I was a director of a plc registered and operating in the Channel Islands, with business interests in mainland Europe. Why the Channel Islands? Simply, the tax regime is business friendly and likely to become more so”; and

• Speaking in 1995, he made clear his opposition to a Scottish Parliament, telling Peers, “I do not personally favour a Scottish assembly… because I believe that constitutional change can end up in disaster for the very people that it is intended.”

Furthermore, as the Sunday Healed reported, among those running the review are:

• Businessman and close ally of David Mundell, Boyne Stewart;

• James Stewart, a private equity investor who donates regularly to Mundell’s local party;

• Kim Donald, a former deputy chair of the Scottish Conservatives and a close ally of the party’s leader at Holyrood, Annabel Goldie; and

• Former MSP and close ally of Mundell, Murray Tosh.

The membership of the review body has since caused a substantial degree of concerns among senior party members, speaking to the Scottish press off the record.

Following the announcement of the review, the Herald quoted senior party members as saying:

“It’s like they have gone into the graveyard and dug up their dead”; and

“Anyone hoping for radical change will be incandescent by the membership of the review team.”

This weekend, senior sources within the Scottish Conservative Party were quoted as telling the press:

“The review would be better called the Friends Of Mundell Review. You’ll see pigs fly before you see genuine change from these people”; and

“The commission is irrelevant. It’s totally irrelevant. The Scottish Conservatives are f***ed.”

And speaking to the Scotsman following the appointment of Lord Sanderson as the commission’s chair, one senior party member commented:

“It’s not just that he is a 77-year-old who served under Margaret Thatcher and is tainted by involvement with that government.

“It is also that his views on devolution and gay rights are relics from the party’s past which we need to leave behind if we are to look forward and look like a modern progressive party.”

The review and divisions within the party will serve only to embolden the Tories many opponent across Scotland which has failed to be taken in by the Coalition love-in in Westminster.

Labour MSP for Mid Scotland Fife, John Park, responded:

“Mr Mundell’s comments only confirm the splits in the party. This review is all about shoring up support for a leadership under severe pressure.”