Defiant Russell Findlay insists Tories can win seats from SNP next year

Russell Findlay told his party’s conference in Edinburgh he was “not prepared to accept doom and gloom” and even set his sights on ousting First Minister John Swinney in his Perthshire North constituency.

“Wouldn’t that be some prize, Swinney paying the price for his abysmal record?” he asked members.

Delivering his first conference speech as leader, Mr Findlay struck a defiant note despite polls showing his party is on course to shed MSPs at next year’s election as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK eats into its vote.

“Pundits want to write off our party,” Mr Findlay said. “But I’m an optimist. I’m not prepared to accept doom and gloom. Where we are today is not necessarily where we will be tomorrow.

“By working hard, sticking to our values, and holding our nerve, we can and will turn things around. Our party has upset the odds before.”

He added: “We can get our party back on the pitch.”

Mr Findlay said the Scottish Tories will aim “to take on and defeat the SNP in more constituencies”, adding: “Not just hold onto what we have, but win more.”

He attacked Mr Swinney as “a fanatic” who is dishonest and deceitful, and advocated making the Holyrood election a referendum on the SNP’s record.

The Scottish Tory leader also took aim at Reform, who are projected to win upwards of a dozen MSPs next year.

“We’re the only party with a sensible plan to shake up Scottish politics,” he said. “Reform pretend they can do it. But all they'll achieve is another five years of SNP government.

“As we saw at the general election, and as every poll shows, Reform increases the chance of the SNP winning. They seem content with that. Maybe it’s because they’ve got pro-independence candidates to keep happy.

“Or maybe it's because Nigel Farage says he's not worried about the SNP getting another five-year term. Well we are worried about the SNP, Nigel, because we live here.

“But we can't spend our time focusing on Reform because it's what we do that matters most. We'll only win back public trust by demonstrating that we have a plan to take Scotland forward.”

He said Mr Farage “has come up with fantastical spending plans that would make Jeremy Corbyn blush”.

Outlining his “blueprint for a common-sense future”, Mr Findlay said the Tories would scrap the SNP’s “unaffordable and unachievable” 2045 net zero target and take £100 off every household energy bill from the proceeds of leasing Scotland’s waters to wind farms.

He also advocated setting a target for the number of Scottish medical students at universities north of the border to reduce NHS waiting lists in the longer term.

Meanwhile, a new “Taxpayer Savings Act” would aim to save £650 million by cutting red tape, getting a grip on spending and harnessing business expertise.

Mr Findlay said his party would “bring the core civil service under control by reducing staff levels to where they were 10 years ago”, implying more than 10,000 public sector job losses.

In a move similar to US President Donald Trump’s creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), he also promised to bring in a Scottish Agency of Value and Efficiency (Save) to be run by business leaders “tasked with wielding a claymore on waste”.

Elsewhere, he set out plans to tackle classroom violence and improve education with a “firmer approach” to school discipline.

Mr Findlay said the Tories needed to be open about the mistakes the party made in power in Westminster. “In government, taxes rose too high, immigration was not brought under control and we stopped focusing on improving people’s lives,” he said.

He argued the Scottish Parliament had become a “block on progress for Scotland”, and claimed Mr Swinney was “an Amstrad politician in the Apple age” who would “impoverish Scotland in pursuit of his perverse lifelong desire to destroy the UK”.

Mr Findlay said: “People like him are why voters have lost trust in politics.”

Speaking to journalists after his speech, Mr Findlay addressed criticism that his aim to win more constituency seats in Holyrood concealed the fact his party will likely lose MSPs via the more proportional regional list system.

He insisted lots of “pointy-headed pollsters” had been proven wrong in the past.

During his speech, Mr Findlay, a former investigative journalist who was once the victim of a doorstep acid attack, contrasted his background with that of his political rivals.

“I’m not a careerist like John Swinney who’s spent a quarter of a century at Holyrood,” he said. “I’m not like MP’s son Anas Sarwar [the Scottish Labour leader], destined for a political career.

“These Holyrood establishment stooges are not capable of delivering change. It’s too difficult for them. The status quo actually suits left-wing SNP and Labour.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Russell Findlay’s increasingly desperate attempts to stay relevant are becoming hard to watch.

“No one will forget the damage the Tories have done to our country - inflicting 14 years of chaos on us in government and providing the SNP with cover for their failures in Scotland.

“The Tories’ hopes of unseating John Swinney next year are comically optimistic - but we can remove John Swinney as First Minister by electing a Scottish Labour government.”