What Kemi Badenoch vs Robert Jenrick means for the Scottish Tories

A fractious contest and a bitter legacy left by predecessor Douglas Ross are perhaps two problems he has an element of control over. To an extent, you could say he can have some influence too over how the party recovers from a bruising General Election, particularly for their UK counterparts.

But on that latter part, things might just be about to get a whole lot worse following the latest result in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak.

After Tom Tugendhat exited the contest as expected on Tuesday, James Cleverly – who raced into a shock lead – was surprisingly knocked out the following day, leaving the two most right-wing candidates in Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick vying for the position of leader of the opposition.

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It is well known the Scottish Tories are classically more small c conservative than their UK partners. It was reported back in 2018 they devised a campaign to encourage their MPs to vote against Boris Johnson becoming UK leader.

Naturally, many MSPs backed Tugendhat. A former member of the armed forces, he had pitched himself as the candidate of public service and was much more moderate than the rest of the pack.

Meanwhile, former leader Ruth Davidson came out in support of Cleverly, perhaps the next most palatable candidate for a party desperately trying to rediscover it's purpose and establish unity.

Cleverly at one stage stressed the party needed to “be more normal”. Hold my beer, said Tory MPs. 

(Image: PA) Badenoch vs Jenrick will have been the last thing the Scottish Tories would’ve wanted. Both have been likened to being closer to the politics of Nigel Farage than the likes of David Cameron or Theresa May. The party is clearly struggling with how to deal with the growing threat of Reform UK and seemingly, the idea of fighting right with right is their preferred tactic at the moment. 

Both have made unsavoury headlines in recent weeks with Badenoch suggesting maternity pay was “excessive” before trying to squirm her way out of it. She also said she would reprogramme devolution if she ever became prime minister. Jenrick, meanwhile, claimed the UK special forces “kill rather than capture” terrorists.

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Tory MSPs were reported to be pretty unhappy with the way things had panned out on Wednesday.

We already knew Findlay was uneasy at the idea of Jenrick becoming leader. When he was asked whether he agreed with Jenrick’s policy of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights after he became Scottish Tory leader, he suggested he didn’t but “nothing was off the table”. Trying to be diplomatic, while everyone knew the predicament he was in.

You could again sense how uncomfortable Findlay was with the latest result in interviews at Holyrood on Wednesday, where he would not commit to backing either candidate but equally did not go as far as to criticise them.

Asked if either of them would be any good for the party in Scotland by STV, Findlay replied: “I think we’ll just have to wait and see the outcome.”

Pressed on whether he thought both would be good given he wasn’t expressing a preference, he then replied: “Well obviously we’ll have to work together, but I’m on the phone as you can see and I’ve got to go and vote.”

Awkward doesn’t cover it. His face was starting to glow red as he tried desperately to escape, and as an ex-journalist himself, he will know the sense of dilemma will not be lost on political hacks, as much as he tried to hide it.

So how do the Scottish Tories tackle this one? They’ll likely be thinking stay in your lane, control the controllables. We’ve got plenty of our own issues without trying to sort out theirs too.

But this contest and the hard-right mud-slinging that’s surely about to ensue will hang over them, whether they like it or not, and they will have to hope and pray they can sufficiently distance themselves from it.