I’ve recently received the honour of being promoted to Deputy Chair of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist party.
In his reshuffle of the shadow ministerial team, party leader Douglas Ross has also appointed me Deputy Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government.
It is a real privilege to take on these positions at an exciting time for the Scottish Conservative party, as another General Election starts to draw closer.
Several people have asked me what each new role entails, so let me tell you a little bit about what I’ll be doing.
As Deputy Chair of the party, I will be working with the Chairman Craig Hoy to help the party engage with our members and supporters. One of my main ambitions is to continue increasing the diversity of the party, building on my work as co-founder and co-chair of the Scottish Conservative Friends of BAME, which in recent elections resulted in more candidates standing from diverse backgrounds than ever before.
I know from my experience as an MSP that the grassroots of a party, the people who go out leafleting in all kinds of weather at all times of the year, are the ones who really make the difference. I want to make sure that everybody who belongs to this party feels heard, knows how they can contribute, and understands what we are trying to achieve.
I will also be engaging with company leaders and the business community on the party’s behalf. Prior to becoming a politician, I built up decades of experience working on economic development, improving relations with entrepreneurs and investors, and maximising investment. I plan to put that high-level experience to good use and grow the party’s network of supporters.
Meanwhile, in the Scottish Parliament, Douglas Ross has asked me to become part of the Finance and Local Government team. I am really looking forward to working with the Shadow Cabinet Secretary, Liz Smith MSP, to hold the SNP to account at Holyrood.
Some of this role will include scrutinising the Scottish Government Budget and ensuring they are spending taxpayers’ money wisely. Using my real life business experience, I will be relentless holding the SNP to account and demanding transparency whenever they try to cover-up public cash that they have wasted on failed projects, incompetent blunders or misguided priorities.
But the bulk of my role will be on holding the SNP accountable for how they handle local government, particularly as I will be joining the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee.
Once more, I am lucky to be able to rely on my experience, as I spent many years operating at a senior level as part of council leadership teams. I’ve seen first-hand how councils can deliver for local residents and I was responsible for running many projects that ended successfully. I am excited to be back working on local government, albeit from a different angle this time, as I will be holding others accountable instead of being accountable myself.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done on local government in Scotland. For too long, councils have been starved of resources by the SNP, which has left them struggling to balance the books while also providing all the frontline services that local people deserve. So, one of my first tasks will be to make sure that councils get the funding they need to deliver the top-quality public services we need. Our schools need more investment, our roads need to be improved and our high streets need more help. But that won’t happen if the SNP keep slashing council budgets, as they have for years now. I will be arguing strongly that SNP cuts to Scotland’s councils must end.
I also want to make sure that Scotland’s councils are run properly for the people they serve. Local councils oversee so many of the things that really matter to people’s everyday lives, for instance town centre regeneration, business support, and planning decisions. I am sure we all know someone who has grappled with bureaucracy to get a building warrant or struggled to get answers about key local developments. So, I will be taking a long and detailed look at what more we can do on those crucial areas to make life easier for people.
Both of my new roles offer great opportunities to take the fight to the SNP while helping to improve the lives of people in Scotland, which is why I got into politics in the first place. I am looking forward to seizing the chance to deliver both for my party and for the country.
