THE Scottish Conservative party has been thrown into crisis after two of its most senior figures signalled their intention to quit their posts.

Brian Monteith is to resign as the party’s finance spokesman to allow him to speak more freely about the direction in which he believes the party should be heading.

Meanwhile, Murdo Fraser, the party’s enterprise spokesman, who is widely expected to be its next leader, has revealed privately that he intends to stand as an MP at Westminster, which he considers “the real seat of power”.

The loss of two of the party’s brightest talents is a damaging blow to its beleaguered leader David McLetchie, who is under pressure from colleagues to encourage more internal debate and to introduce a radical edge to the party’s policies north of the border.

Monteith met McLetchie nine days ago to discuss his future and voice his frustration over the direction of the party. Monteith suggested he would quit his frontbench post if McLetchie failed to introduce a more radical agenda. In particular, he wants the party to argue more forcefully for lower taxation, for small government and for greater financial powers for Holyrood.

The pair appeared to have reached an agreement that would enable Monteith to stay on as a party spokesman. However, he has reconsidered and has told a close circle of friends that he intends to quit after the summer, allowing him to speak freely without breaching the party’s terms of collective responsibility.

“He believes the party is going in the wrong direction but, as part of the frontbench team, his hands are tied,” said a colleague. “Returning to the backbenches will allow him to speak freely about what he thinks is going wrong with the party he cares deeply about.”

Fraser, who was recently censured for suggesting that the Scottish party should break away from its UK counterpart, is regarded by many as McLetchie’s natural successor.

However he has now ruled himself out of the leadership, telling friends he is intent on a career at Westminster where he believes there is a greater chance of the Tories winning power.

Fraser plans to put himself forward as a by-election candidate in a winnable Tory seat and, if necessary, to stand at the next general election.

An advocate of greater fiscal autonomy for Scotland, he is said to have become increasingly frustrated at the limitations of Holyrood and critical of the level of debate. “Murdo feels it would be better to be in a political environment where you are discussing a whole range of issues, including where the money comes from as opposed to how the cake is divided,” said one colleague.

“If Holyrood did have fiscal powers, he would be more enticed to stay on a permanent basis. He also feels that
Westminster is a bigger stage, a bigger parliament and has a
lot more power and responsibility — that’s where the attraction lies.”

Internal divisions deepened yesterday after Jackson Carlaw was selected as the party’s new vice-chairman. Carlaw
overshadowed the party’s Scottish manifesto launch in April after making ill-advised remarks about Chinese and Africans during a warm-up act ahead of the arrival of party leader Michael Howard in Glasgow.

His appointment is expected to be confirmed within a few days after executive members who were not present at the meeting are consulted.

“A lot of people will find this highly questionable given the publicity generated by his tasteless jokes. At a time when we need to be building bridges with all communities in Scotland rather than burning them he does not seem a clever choice,” said one senior Tory.

Duncan McNeil, a backbench Labour MSP, said the party was “imploding”. “It claims to be a mainstream party but a mainstream party does not reward people who make the jokes he made with senior positions. It sends the completely wrong message to communities across Scotland and certainly won’t help their recovery or claim to be a party representing all of Scotland,” he added.

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