Who is John Cooper, the Tory special adviser and former journalist aiming to succeed Alister Jack

The Scotland Secretary Alister Jack is standing down at the general election

With Scottish secretary Alister Jack standing down at the general election, the Conservatives needed a new candidate to replace him in Dumfries and Galloway.

They haven’t needed to look far, however, with the candidate of choice none other than John Cooper – a former journalist and then special adviser (Spad) with the Scotland Secretary in the Scotland Office.

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Hoping to represent the seat he grew up in, Mr Cooper told The Scotsman he had always been passionate about Dumfries and Galloway, discussed criticism of the Scotland Office and detailed his passion for music.

The constituency of Dumfries and Galloway is the target seat for John Cooper, the former special adviser aiming to succeed Scottish secretary Alister Jack (pictured). Picture: Getty ImagesThe constituency of Dumfries and Galloway is the target seat for John Cooper, the former special adviser aiming to succeed Scottish secretary Alister Jack (pictured). Picture: Getty Images
The constituency of Dumfries and Galloway is the target seat for John Cooper, the former special adviser aiming to succeed Scottish secretary Alister Jack (pictured). Picture: Getty Images

Discussing why he chose to run, the Stranraer-educated candidate said he had never imagined he would try to be an MP.

"I had never at any stage considered standing for elected office, it just wasn’t on my radar. It’s not a thing that was a burning desire,” he said.

"When the opportunity to be a spad came up, that was entirely out of the blue. And when I was approached – would I be interested? – I obviously I took some time to think about it because it’s a big step and I thought ‘yeah, I’d like to give this a go’.

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"At the Scotland Office, what I’ve learned about politics and politicians has been tremendous because I’ve worked with Alister, who has a business-like approach, and on a personal level has tremendous generosity of spirit.”

Mr Cooper also mentioned the MPs he had worked with in the role, saying he had learned a lot from them and how they approach things.

No longer a government advisor due to the election, Mr Cooper explained the decision to stand, saying: “When I was at the Mail, I used to write a column, and much of it was about Dumfries and Galloway one way or another, using Dumfries and Galloway as a kind of microcosm for what was going on, particularly in rural Scotland, which I think is forgotten about to a tremendous extent.

"That kind of formulated my ideas about what Scotland needs and what Scotland is like. My first job was in Stranraer, the Wigtownshire Free Press, which I joined at 17. And then at the end of my journalism career, I was back there as editor, so there was a kind of book-ending if you like.

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“In that period, I was very much campaigning to amplify local voices and that’s very much what I think an MP can do. You find out what the local issues are, what the difficulties are, and you take those voices and you amplify them. As an MP I would not allow devolution to become a shield for people to hide behind. If there’s issues for constituents, you have to go in to bat for them.”

The Tory candidate also discussed criticism of the Scotland Office, saying the SNP wilfully misunderstood what the body was for.

He said: “If they're looking at it, it’s from the point of view that devolution doesn't work, and they don't want devolution to work. That's the unspoken thing here. They want to be independent. So they don't see it as a stepping stone to independence, they see it as a block.

“They don’t want it to work, so obviously they are going to attack the Scotland Office, the zombie department, and all of these bricks that are thrown at it. But if you're there on the ground, then the reality of it is the UK government's been more active in Scotland under Alister Jack than I think at any time since devolution.

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“People take their lead from the man at the top and he’s really results focused. He wants answers, he wants solutions. The Scotland Office doesn’t get a lot of credit for the things that it does because they are by nature behind the scenes, or stopping bad things happening. That is not going to generate headlines.”

Mr Cooper expressed frustration at the constant debates about independence and argued it was damaging debate in Scotland.

He said: “We are mired still in the endless arguments about independence and that has been a break on progress, and here we go again, general election on the 4th of July this year, the SNP have said that page one of their manifesto will be about independence.

“We cannot escape this, and I read somewhere at the weekend that the Tories love talking about this. That’s not true. We’re forced to talk about this and we have to address it because it’s an existential threat to Britain.

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“Because we get bogged down in talking about, with all these castles in the air about what an independent Scotland might look like, but it’s not happening and real world issues are not being addressed.”

There was also praise for Rishi Sunak, whom Mr Cooper insisted had been good for Scotland, leaving “independence further away than ever, and therefore the union more secure”.

Away from politics, Mr Cooper is a keen drummer and said the music scene in Stranraer was a huge part of his life.

“I’m a huge music fan and when I was 14, 15 I learned to play the drums and there was a really big music scene in Stranraer where I grew up,” he said.

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"I was quite hard working at school. But by night I was in bands and things like that. I was in pubs when I really shouldn’t have been. I think on my first tax return, it said I was a trainee journalist and freelance musician. The band I was in when I was a kid was called ‘Cheap Sweeties’ because we wanted to name it after something everybody liked.

"Years later, having not played for years, I ended up in a small band because a guy moved a few doors down from me who was a guitarist. We mainly ended up playing charity gigs.”

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