Jamie Greene launches Scottish Tory leadership bid

Jamie Greene is the fifth hopeful to enter the Scottish Conservative leadership race

Jamie Greene has announced his candidacy for the Scottish Conservative leadership.

The West Scotland MSP pledged a "radical shake-up" of the party's strategy at Holyrood to ensure it is not "in eternal opposition".

He is the fifth Tory to stand in the race to succeed Douglas Ross, alongside former journalist Russell Findlay, ex-Olympic sprinter Brian Whittle, deputy leader Meghan Gallacher and education and skills spokesperson Liam Kerr.

The contest is scheduled to finish by late September.

'Common sense party'

“I want to fix politics, fix our party, and fix Scotland,” Mr Greene said. “That means a radical shake-up of how we do things in Holyrood and a change in leadership style.”

He vowed to deliver “meaningful change”, including giving members a bigger say in how the party was run, as he condemned “pointless grievance mongering” in parliament.

“The country needs a common sense, centre-right party which the next generation of voters will trust, a party with a viable and honest path to power,” Mr Greene said.

“That’s why my campaign will focus on how we attract people who have never considered voting Conservative before, but who are drawn to our common-sense ideas.

“We must change and that means taking some risks, or face being in eternal opposition.”

The Scottish Conservative leadership contest is scheduled to finish by the end of September

Before being elected to parliament in 2016, Mr Greene worked in the media. He is the co-convener of Holyrood’s LGBTI+ cross party group.

He was sacked from the party's front bench last year by Mr Ross, who will remain in post until the new leader is elected by members.

The new Scottish Tory leader will be in place before the UK party names a successor to Rishi Sunak on 2 November.

Mr Ross revealed he would quit during the general election campaign.

The came after he announced a U-turn on running for a seat at Westminster and was selected ahead of a colleague who had been ill in hospital.