The frontrunner to become the next leader of the Scottish Tories has vowed to “repair some of the damage” caused by infighting - but insisted there are “legitimate questions” over Douglas Ross’s conduct. Russell Findlay formally launched his campaign to replace Mr Ross, but raised eyebrows after refusing to deny he has taken class A drugs after setting out his hard-line criminal justice position on illegal substance misuse. Mr Findlay, the Conservative justice spokesperson at Holyrood, was asked about the campaign being plunged into chaos on Friday after four of his rivals called for the proceedings to be halted and another candidate, Meghan Gallacher, quit as Mr Ross’s deputy.
Read more: How Russell Findlay will distance himself from Douglas Ross plot with 'decency' push The storm erupted after it emerged that Mr Ross reportedly offered to quit last year and install Mr Findlay as his replacement. But speaking to journalists at the event at Glasgow’s Science Centre, Mr Findlay insisted he has "full faith" in the process, but warned the episode had shown the Tories in “a poor light”. He said: “I am confident that our party will have a robust and fair contest for leadership and whoever prevails will unite us.
“We don't want to see infighting. The public aren't remotely interested in fighting. If anything is going to turn people off at such a critical time.
We need to be coming together and rebuilding. “So if I do get the job, the first thing I will do is try and bring the group together and repair some of the damage.” Mr Findlay admitted he had been left “quite disappointed” by the infighting.
He added: “It’s crucial that we don’t turn inwards and lose sight of what’s really important. “There is an audience beyond our own ranks who are looking to us. Those conservative-minded voters deserve so much better.
” Mr Findlay, a former journalist, set out his position on Scotland’s drug deaths and whether they should be tackled as a health emergency as opposed to the criminal justice system. He said: "The school of thought that somehow decriminalising, or making drug-taking more likely, or more acceptable is the wrong path. “While rightly it's being treated as a public health emergency, we can't lose sight of the fact that organised crime is behind so much of this, and must be tackled.
" But Mr Findlay was unable to say whether he has taken class A drugs himself, despite pointing to holidays to Ibiza in his younger days. He said: “As for my own past, I wouldn't want to be drawn on that. "You may have read Chris Deerin's dispatch in the New Statesman about how we went on holiday to Ibiza in the 1990s.
It wouldn't be right for me to talk about my own past in that respect." Mr Findlay told activists that the Tories needed to end their obsession with opposing independence and focus on positive policies - calling for a strategy to recapture the “Ruth Davidson mojo”. He insisted that the Tories “were right” to oppose the SNP’s calls for independence in the past, but warned that “times change and we must change with them”.
Mr Findlay added: “I’m offering the leadership to deliver that necessary change. “Yes, we will always remain vigilant to the threat of nationalism. But it’s clear that for the foreseeable future at least, independence is not happening.
” Yesterday it emerged a Sky News interview with Mr Ross during the General Election is being investigated by the media regulator Ofcom . The watchdog launched an investigation into the broadcaster’s coverage of the election on June 10, when Mr Ross spoke about quitting as party leader. He announced his intention to stand down citing difficulties being an MP, an MSP and Scottish Conservative leader, and faced a backlash after trying to run in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat, before losing it to the SNP.
An Ofcom spokeswoman said: “We are investigating whether this programme broke our rules around election coverage.” The Ofcom rules on elections and referendums state that “due weight must be given to the coverage of parties” during the period before polling day and “due impartiality must be strictly maintained”, where the matter relates to a constituency. It also says a candidate must “not be given the opportunity to make constituency points” if “no other candidates will be given a similar opportunity”.
Mr Ross told Sky News in June that he denied the decision to leave his position as Scots Tory leader was to do with his own political ambitions, and referenced his commitment to the people of the constituency he was running for. He said: “No, I don’t think anyone looking at me announcing today that I’m standing down as leader would necessarily come to that conclusion. “What I am doing today is taking a decision, reflecting on comments made by colleagues and others, to focus fully on the people of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.
” He told the broadcaster the situation with former Scotland Office minister David Duguid hoping to fight the seat was “a very difficult one”. The Scottish Conservative management board – which Mr Ross is part of – had ruled that ill health meant Mr Duguid could not stand for election. Mr Ross had previously said publicly he would not seek re-election to Westminster, to focus on his priorities in Holyrood as Scottish Tory leader.
It was alleged recently that he told Kathleen Robertson in 2023 that his “heart was in Westminster, not Holyrood”, and asked to replace her as a Tory candidate for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey. Sky News responded with no comment..
