Conservative ambitions in Glasgow have been on the slide for more than 50 years – so much so that they are now as low as they have ever been. But not even the most pessimistic of Tories could have envisaged the appalling start to their campaign in the city that they have already had to endure.
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He was replaced by senior Edinburgh Conservative Iain Whyte. Mr Whyte is a member of NHS Lothian and he thought he could stand down from the health board for the election then join back up again if, as he expected, he failed to get elected. Then he found he couldn’t do that and, if he left the health board, he wouldn’t be able to get back on. So, rather than stand in a hopeless seat and lose his place on the health board, he quit the constituency. But the worst development for the party came with the sacking of Malcolm Macaskill, the top Conservative candidate on the Glasgow regional list. Mr Macaskill was sacked by the party last week after it emerged he had been twice declared bankrupt. However, that was only the start of the Conservative problems. Mr Macaskill has been working for the party for many years, is well liked and respected with Glasgow Conservative circles, and his sacking angered many of his friends and colleagues. Among this number were Tom Coakley, a former footballer turned millionaire, and John McGlynn, an airport car park magnate. Both threatened to withdraw funding from the party which, in Mr Coakley’s case, was substantial. Although he hadn’t yet started donating, Mr Coakley had promised to give the party £100,000 every year for ten years. Many of Mr Macaskill’s friends and supporters were suspicious about the timing of the sacking. Had Mr Macaskill been sacked in January, the party might have had to run the nominations again for the regional list. But, with the sacking taking place so close to the submission date for nominations, the Conservative leadership was able to just promote Ruth Davidson, the second-placed person on the list, giving her a virtually guaranteed seat in parliament in May. Ms Davidson is an aide to the party leader, Annabel Goldie, and some of Mr Macaskill’s friends believed he had been edged out to make sure Ms Davidson was elected. All these problems have exaggerated the already serious issues the Conservatives have with activists in Glasgow, with some party members now saying they will refuse to go out and canvass for a party which has treated one of its own candidates so shabbily. One senior figure in the party said: “It is imploding at a local level. It is in meltdown. Some people are not going to work for the party during the campaign because they don’t like the way Malcolm [Macaskill] was treated, others are angry because of the way it was handled and others maybe feel they would have stood on the list had they known that Malcolm wasn’t going to be a candidate.” It is understood that the Conservative Party official nomination papers listing all the candidates fighting in Glasgow – which included Miss Davidson but not Mr Macaskill – were submitted just three hours after the news of Mr Macaskill’s sacking was made public. The source said: “Had it been done in January, they might have had to re-run the (selection) process but, by doing it now, so close to the elections, they don’t have to do that.” The Conservative source also stressed that the likely loss of the donations from Mr Coakley and Mr McGlynn would provoke anger from party bosses in London. “If it had just been the loss of an MSP candidate, London wouldn’t have noticed,” he said. But he added: “The loss of someone who was prepared to donate £100,000 a year for ten years. London will sit up and take notice, and they won’t be happy.” A Conservative spokesman insisted that the departure of Mr Whyte was straightforward and was purely the result of the rules governing NHS boards, and he refused to say anything about Mr Macaskill’s sacking. The Labour Party, however, was quick to intervene in an attempt to exploit the Tory problems. Patricia Ferguson, Labour’s candidate for Maryhill and Springburn, said: “I am delighted that Labour has seen off two Tory candidates for our part of Glasgow – we hope to do the same when the next comes along.” And Stephen Curran, Labour candidate for Glasgow Southside, added: “The continuing drip-drip of bad news from the Scottish Tories shows the turmoil at the heart of their campaign. To lose three candidates in a row is a disaster for them. “People in Glasgow remember what the Tories did to our city the last time, but the reason so few support them now is because of their policies today.”Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
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