Scottish Tories make case for tax cuts and smaller state

‘Nothing is off the table’, new Conservative leader Russell Findlay says, as he pledged to look at where savings could be made in public services.

Setting out his stall earlier in his first major speech since becoming party leader, Mr Findlay said his party would make the case for tax cuts and a smaller state, that would be a “markedly different approach” to the “left-wing consensus” in the Scottish Parliament.

He also called for all the parties at Holyrood to return to the “common ground” of “people’s hopes, concerns and aspirations” and the “issues of relevance to mainstream Scotland”.

But at the same time, he felt the need to deny that his party had lurched to the right since he became leader last month.

This indication of the future direction of the Scottish Conservatives was badly needed, as the party has struggled to position itself since opposition to a second independence referendum stopped being a major vote winner.

Indeed, in a measure of how much has changed, the only mention of independence was to note that it had not been mentioned.

When one journalist referred to the “i-word”, he was, in fact talking about immigration rather than independence.

The party needed a new message.