THE Scottish Tories aren’t having the best time right now, an inevitable consequence of finding out that outgoing leader Douglas Ross had been telling them porkies for the last year.

The Conservative MSP had repeatedly insisted he would be standing down from Westminster at the General Election to focus on his work at Holyrood, and of course his own colleagues believed him.

But on Friday reports broke that said Ross had actually been on manoeuvres for more than a year in an effort to retain a seat in the London parliament – a prize he openly said he would resign his Holyrood seat for during the General Election.

READ MORE: Douglas Ross urged to quit as MSP for 'treating Holyrood as second best'

The underhanded tactics sparked what can only be described as absolute chaos in the Scottish Tory ranks, as four of the six leadership candidates signed a joint letter calling Ross’s actions “disturbing” and saying the race should be paused – and then the depute leader resigned.

But while Ross has apparently not been entirely truthful with his own colleagues, he wouldn’t lie to the media, would he?

We at The National decided to see if we could trust his word earlier this week, recalling some of his grandstanding during the 2023 SNP leadership campaign.

Readers may remember at the time that the SNP were facing calls to publish their membership numbers, with Ross just about the loudest voice demanding they do so. However, he refused to release the Scottish Conservatives’ figures.

Speaking to ITV Border in May 2023, Ross said: “We always announce them during a leadership election.”

He added: "We’ll release our figures when there’s a leadership election, but when we do that, whenever we do that, we will be honest and upfront.”

So, will the party live up to Ross’s promise to “always” publish membership figures “during” a leadership election? What do you think?

We asked them, and got the expected answer: no.

But a spokesperson from the Scottish Tories’ media team said that the figures could instead be extrapolated after a new leader has been elected “via the number of votes cast for each of the candidates and the turnout figure”.

So the party won’t be publishing their membership numbers as such. Instead, they will release leadership election data which will allow anyone with a calculator to make an educated estimate.

Is that being “honest and upfront”, as Ross said his party would be?

But then, at the rate Ross has been alienating his own colleagues, will the party even have any members left by the time it gets to the leadership vote?