Meghan Gallacher joins Scottish Conservative leadership contest

The deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives Meghan Gallacher has announced she is joining the party's leadership race.

She is the third candidate to confirm she is running, alongside former journalist Russell Findlay and ex-Olympic sprinter Brian Whittle.

The party’s management board has now set out the dates for the contest, with nominations opening on 8 August before the winner is announced on 27 September.

Ms Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, said the contest was an opportunity for a reset and that she wanted to build a "modern, centre-right party".

She said: "Scotland knows what we stand against, but do they know what we stand for?

"This leadership election presents an opportunity for a reset - to renew our offering to the people of Scotland and to our membership who have stood by us through the good times and the bad.

"We need to utilise our talents, build a stronger team and look to the future."

Ms Gallacher added that she wanted to focus on policies such as the right to buy a house, support for parents and pensioners, and helping people to "keep more of what they earn".

She was elected as an MSP in 2021 and has since rapidly risen through party ranks.

Douglas Ross appointed her as his deputy in 2022, and she was front and centre of the party’s opposition to controversial proposals to make it easier for Scots to change their legal sex.

The politics graduate wrote her dissertation on the decline of the Conservative Party in Scotland.

Douglas Ross lost a controversial bid to become the MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East

Mr Ross announced during the general election campaign that he would stand down as leader after the vote.

It came after a backlash over his decision to stand in place of former MP David Duguid - who party bosses deemed too ill to run.

Mr Ross lost the seat to SNP MP Seamus Logan.

Mr Findlay, the party's justice spokesperson at Holyrood, was the first candidate to announce he was running.

He promised to make the party leaders of "a patriotic conservative movement that stands for aspiration and ambition".

He said he was expecting a "positive contest" and that he hoped to unite the party "behind a common-sense Conservative platform".

Mr Whittle announced his intention to run earlier this week.

He said that "education, enterprise and empowering people" should be placed at the core of the party.

Candidates will need 100 nominations from party members to get on the ballot paper, and voting will follow a a preferential voting system, with members ranking their chosen candidates in order of preference.

The bottom ranked candidate will be eliminated in each round, with their first-preference votes redistributed until one candidate receives over 50% of votes cast.

There will be a series of hustings before voting begins early in September.

The UK Conservative Party is also seeking a new leader, with that contest scheduled to run until 2 November.