THE former Tory MP for Stirling Stephen Kerr looks set to return to frontline politics after he was unveiled as the party’s top ranked candidate on one of the regional lists.
Kerr was ousted from his Westminster seat at the 2019 general election by the SNP’s Alyn Smith who won a 9254 majority of votes.
But the ardent Brexiteer now looks poised to become a MSP after winning first place on the Conservatives list rankings in Central Scotland. Tory MSP Graham Simpson is ranked second place.
Elsewhere, former party leader Jackson Carlaw won the top place on the west of Scotland list, with head of communications Russell Findlay and education spokesman Jamie Greene MSP taking second and third place.
Annie Wells won the top ranked place on the Glasgow list with Sandesh Gulhane, a GP in Glasgow, taking second place.
Party leader Douglas Ross was named top of the Highlands and Islands list with MSPs Edward Mountain, Donald Cameron and Jamie Halcro Johnston in second, third and fourth places.
With men dominating the party’s candidates’ lists, the Tories have been criticised by one of its former MSPs. Only 16 women are featured on the list of Tory candidates contesting 73 constituency seats.
Currently 80% of Tory MSPs are male, with 24 out of 30 representatives, and a similar proportion is expected in the next Parliament.
The party opted against gender-balancing selection despite only 11 of the 58 Tory MSPs elected since devolution in 1999, having been women.
Former Tory MSP Mary Scanlon told the Sunday Times: “The party needs to re-examine its strategy and look at how women can be more valued and supported to enable them to be selected.”
A party activist from the west of Scotland claimed several impressive potential female candidates were dismissed through the selection system, in favour of incumbents.
She said: “The party should have endorsed fewer sitting members, and promoted new female talent.”
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