DOUGLAS Ross has announced he will resign as Scottish Tory leader after the General Election – and also as an MSP should he be elected to Westminster.
Ross is standing in the General Election in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat, a U-turn on his previous pledge to not to stand in order to focus on his roles at Holyrood.
In a statement, Ross said he would quit his MSP position should he become an MP so that his Westminster constituents “know being their MP would receive my complete focus and attention”.
Ross was both an MP and MSP from the 2021 Holyrood elections until the recent dissolution of the UK Parliament for the General Election.
If Douglas Ross becomes an MP and resigns his seat as an MSP, what will happen? Will there be a by-election?
Douglas Ross sits in the Scottish Parliament as a list MSP for the Highlands and Islands region.
The regional list saw four Conservatives returned in the 2021 Holyrood elections: Ross himself, Edward Mountain, Donald Cameron, and Jamie Halcro Johnston.
If one of them resigns, then there will not be a by-election.
Instead, the next candidate on the Tories’ list from the 2021 elections will become an MSP.
As such, if Ross resigns as an MSP, the Scottish Tories will be able to replace him without an electoral contest.
Has this happened before?
Yes, this has happened before. In fact, the Tories have had two of their MSPs resign and be replaced in this current parliament alone.
In September 2022, Roz McCall took a seat in the Holyrood chamber after former Scottish Conservative MSP Dean Lockhart stepped down to move into business.
And in February 2024, aristocrat and former MSP Donald Cameron resigned his seat in order to take a place in the House of Lords and a ministerial role in the Tory-run Scotland Office.
Cameron (below) was replaced by Tim Eagle.
Who will replace Douglas Ross if he resigns as an MSP?
If Ross resigns as an MSP, he will be replaced by the next candidate on the Scottish Tory regional list for the Highlands and Islands from 2021.
This would have been Tim Eagle, but he is now an MSP after taking Donald Cameron’s seat.
Instead, the next person down the Tories’ list is Ella Robertson McKay.
Robertson McKay works as the managing director for the charity One Young World, which works with celebrities to hold high-profile events to develop young leaders.
Her mother is the charity’s co-founder, Kate Robertson.
In 2022, the Charity Commission opened a probe into One Young World after reports of six-figure salaries paid to Robertson and her daughter.
The BBC reported that, in the 12 months to December 2022, Robertson had received £225,088 and her daughter £115,008.
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