The Lothians MSP Jeremy Balfour has resigned from the Scottish Conservatives saying that Leader Russell Findlay has fallen into the trap of reactionary politics.
The lifelong Tory said in his resignation letter: “Increasingly, decisions seem to be made by advisers who lack experience, while senior MSP colleagues are ignored.”
Mr Balfour was the party’s social justice spokesperson and is the second to leave the party. Jamie Greene recently defected to the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
He told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think too many people are coming in, are drafting policies who don’t really understand the issues and senior colleagues are being ignored.
“We know that social security budget needs to be looked at, but the leadership has just taken the view of ‘let’s just cut benefits’ without looking at what those benefits do, how they work, what effect that will have on employment, what effect it will have on individuals.
“It was a very easy headline to be grabbed, But the work below that has not been done and the work that I and others have done, has just been ignored.”
Dr Alan Convery, Senior Lecturer in Politics at University of Edinburgh said: “This resignation reflects wider dilemmas for how the Scottish Conservatives should position themselves when the independence referendum question is off the agenda and they face a serious challenge from Reform.”
Mr Balfour had to be wakened up in 2016 when he was first elected as a list MSP – he was at home as he did not really think he would be elected.
He was previously a councillor in Edinburgh.
