DOUGLAS Ross has been accused of holding a “vendetta” against the Traveller community after emails revealed he wanted Moray Council to evict a family from their “very visible” site.
The Scottish Tory leader has previously come under fire for comments made about the community. In a 2017 interview he was asked what he would do if he was prime minister for a day, and responded that he would prioritise “tougher enforcement against Gypsy Travellers”. He later apologised.
This week openDemocracy also reported that Ross said he was disappointed “we seem to have to bend over backwards for this ethnic minority” when a Traveller site was approved in Moray.
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While working as a councillor, Ross opposed another Traveller site because it was too far from urban centres, citing concerns over managing and controlling it in a remote area. Three years later his committee decided Traveller sites could not be set up within a kilometre of existing settlements.
In an email seen by openDemocracy under freedom of information rules, Ross wrote to the local council with his concerns about a Traveller site.
He says it has been “occupied for some time and is in a very visible location as you enter Moray from the west”.
He complained that it appeared to be “getting bigger” and asked Moray Council’s chief executive about plans to “remove the Travellers”.
The local authority’s head of development services responded to Ross, saying the site was on private land and was “clean and tidy”. There had also been no complaints about anti-social behaviour, they added.
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The emails were heavily criticised by human rights campaigners, with the European Roma Rights group accusing Ross of having a “vendetta” against the community. They added that “this wouldn’t be tolerated with any other ethnic minority”.
Scottish Greens candidate Maggie Chapman said the communication shows Ross is “totally unfit to be a parliamentarian, much less the leader of a party”.
“Ross claims to want to move on from the arguments of the past, yet one of his passions appears to be a very old prejudice: hatred of minorities. That has no place in our future and it's time for him to apologise or resign,” she added.
The Moray MP’s comments also drew criticism from LibDem and SNP politicians. Local LibDem candidate Sheila Ritchie described Ross’s “disdain” for the community as “shocking”, while co-chair of the UK’s All-Party Group on Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, Martin Docherty-Hughes, said Ross’s attitude is “appalling”.
A Scottish Tory spokesperson said: “These emails show Douglas Ross asking on his constituent’s behalf about the occupation of illegal sites.”
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Ross faced questions on his previous comments about Travellers during this week’s STV Leaders’ Debate.
During cross-examination, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “You’ve campaigned against their right to legal Traveller sites for a decade and when your attempts to stop one of them failed you complained about what you called ‘having to bend over backwards for this ethnic minority’.
“Is it your whole party that is prejudiced against Gypsy Travellers or just you?”
Ross defended his stance, telling viewers: “In my 10 years as a local councillor and in my time as an MSP and an MP, I’ve always stood up for constituents who have come to me seeking action on issues that they are worried about.
“There was a big issue and we formally had a legal site. It had to be closed by over 100 officers from the former Grampian police because of illegal activity which took place there.
“I will continue to act on behalf of constituents who come to me as a representative, seeking help and advocate the points they put forward.”
He said there was more to be done for the Traveller community, before adding he would “never, ever refuse to stand up [for] constituents who come to me seeking help”.
Harvie pointed out that “the Gypsy travellers are your constituents too”.
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