Greene: Where’s next on Conservative race to the right?

Speaking as the Conservative conference in Manchester gets underway, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Greene has challenged Russell Findlay to set out whether there are any of Nigel Farage’s policies which he would not allow the Conservative party to adopt.

Jamie Greene said:

“Kemi Badenoch is in a race to the right with Nigel Farage.

“She is set to announce that she would join Putin in leaving European human rights treaties.

“She wants to rip up net zero policies which have delivered record renewable energy.

“She wants to deport women and children back to the Taliban.

“Russell Findlay never struck me as a malign or vindictive person, so while he’s sipping warm white wine with Kemi Badenoch’s clique of cranks and climate change deniers at their conference, I genuinely wonder whether there will be a little part of him that thinks this is all getting a bit silly and out of hand.

“He has to be abundantly clear with Scots on this: which of Nigel Farage’s policies, in his view, would be a red line for Kemi Badenoch to adopt as Tory policy?

“The real question for him is whether he has the gumption to stop his own Scottish Tory party straying far into the right-wing wilderness with Kemi and her crew.

“The Scottish Liberal Democrats returned more MPs than the Scottish Conservatives at last year’s general election and we will do so again at next year’s election because people want a party that puts decency, respect and fairness at the heart of everything it does, not grievance, stoking division and fuelling bitterness in politics, as the Conservatives seem to revel in these days."