SNP takes over Dumfries & Galloway council after Tory administration quits

The SNP has taken over Dumfries and Galloway Council just hours after its Conservative leader and deputy leader resigned.

Gail Macgregor and Malcolm Johnstone stepped down in the face of a vote of no confidence in their leadership.

In a note to council officials, Tory council leader Macgregor said she had decided to resign with “the heaviest of hearts”.

Later in the day, councillors elected SNP Councillor Stephen Thompson as the council’s new leader at a special meeting, with Councillor Katie Hagmann named as convenor.

In her resignation, the former Tory leader said: “It has been an absolute privilege to serve the people of Dumfries and Galloway as leader of the council for the past 26 months.

“During this time I have always tried to lead with a collaborative approach, and I will always do so for the good of the people we serve and the services we provide.”

A special meeting took place on Monday afternoon in which members chose a new administration.

The Tory group, with Macgregor at the helm, has led the administration in Dumfries and Galloway over the past two years since the collapse of a Labour/SNP coalition in 2023.

But their tenure came to an end on Monday.

More than half of the members of the local authority signed a call for a special meeting to “call for the removal of [Macgregor and deputy leader Malcolm Johnstone] with a motion of no confidence”.

It has signatures from 22 local councillors, and it comes two weeks after seven Tory councillors left the Conservative group to form two separate groups of their own.

It has left the Conservatives with just nine remaining councillors – down from a previous group of 16 – and it prompted other parties to request the meeting.

However, before councillors got the chance to consider the motion to remove Councillor MacGregor from her post, she resigned from the role voluntarily.