'Scottish Tories have been written off, but we'll beat expectations' says MP Andrew Bowie

A Tory MP has said his party has been written off ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections, but he insists the Conservatives will “confound expectations and have a positive result”.

Scottish shadow secretary Andrew Bowie told STV News on Tuesday that he has confidence the party can make a comeback.

“The Scottish Conservatives have been written off at every electoral event before I was even involved in politics, and we’re being written off again,” he said.

“We’ve confounded expectations before, and we’ll confound them again. I’m absolutely positive we’ll have a positive result for Russell Findlay and the Conservative party next May.”

Bowie said the party would set out its vision for Scotland in more detail in the run up to the election, but he said it would include tax cuts and plans for economic growth.

“Russell Findlay was here on Sunday setting out his vision for a low tax, pro-growth, pro-business Scotland,” Bowie said.

“Only the Conservative party is offering that to the people of Scotland. No other party is going in offering to cut tax and incentivise business.”

Bowie insisted he did not believe the party would come fourth at Holyrood, despite the Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse by-election results in June.

The race saw Labour claim the seat, while the Tory candidate came fourth behind Reform UK. The party’s votes were down 11.5% since 2021.

The Conservatives have since lost a suite of Tory councillors north and south of the border to Nigel Farage’s party.

In August, former Tory MSP Graham Simpson, who represents Central Scotland, became the first Scottish Parliamentarian to defect to Reform.

Further defections were announced on Tuesday as Farage claimed another 20 English and Welsh Conservative councillors in a series of posts on X.

However, Bowie has continued to back Tory leader Kemi Badenoch as the party’s UK conference continues in Manchester.

“She is only just getting started,” Bowie said.

“She’s been less than a year in the job. To turn around the fortunes of this party, having suffered our worst electoral defeat in our 200-year history, was not going to be an overnight task.

He added: “What we’re seeing at this conference, the first proper conference since that defeat, is the beginnings of our policy offer to the people of this country – a radical change from the deep malaise that we are in as a result of this failing Labour Government.”

Bowie said that when people hear Badenoch address the conference on Wednesday, he thinks they will start to change their minds about her leadership.