 | 'If there was ever a sign that the Scottish Conservative Party has lost the plot, it came last week with the contest for the post of deputy chairman. The battle was between a car salesman who was castigated last year for telling racist jokes at a campaign launch and an eccentric, right-wing, 77-year-old former MP.' Hamish MacDonell in the Scotsman, 3 rd March 2006. |  |
TORY Mary Scanlon is to stand down from Holyrood to seek election as a first-past-the-post MSP, she said today.
Ms Scanlon, a regional MSP for the Highlands and Islands, is to seek selection as the Tory candidate in the Moray by-election triggered by the death of the SNP's Margaret Ewing.
The selection meeting will be tomorrow night in Elgin.
Under Holyrood rules, if Ms Scanlon becomes the candidate, she will have to resign her Holyrood seat. Her place as a list MSP would be filled by Dave Petrie, the next name below her on the Tory regional list in 2003.
And if she fails to win Moray, Ms Scanlon will be out of a job.
No date has yet been set for the Moray by-election, caused by the death of Ms Ewing last week.
At the 2003 Holyrood election she had a majority of 5,312 over the Tories. Labour finished third and the Liberal Democrats fourth.
Ms Scanlon, 58, a former economics lecturer, has been an MSP since 1999.
Ms Scanlon said she had decide to put her name forward "after much careful thought."
"This has been a difficult decision," she said.
"However, I am committed to the people of Moray and I want to give them the opportunity to choose a strong local voice to represent Moray."
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