The Scottish Conservatives have just announced Meghan Gallacher as their new deputy leader.
The position was abolished shortly after the appointment of Douglas Ross as leader in August 2020, with Liam Kerr and Annie Wells formerly in a joint role, but the Central Scotland MSP has now been handed the title with Ross insisting she has a "bright future in our party".
She says she is determined to "win back the trust of every Scottish Conservative voter", but who exactly is Gallacher?
Gallacher, 30, was brought up in Holytown in North Lanarkshire and is a graduate of the University of the West of Scotland where she studied politics.
She became a councillor in North Lanarkshire for the Motherwell West ward in 2017 and held onto that post when she became an MSP in 2021, but did not run for re-election last week.
In January she called for Boris Johnson to resign as Prime Minister after it emerged he had attended parties during lockdown.
What has Gallacher focused on in Holyrood?
As the Scottish Conservatives gender reform spokeswoman, she has been outspoken about the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
READ MORE: Scrapping Human Rights Act opens 'Pandora's box', Tories told
She criticised Lorna Slater after the Greens deputy leader spoke out against people who hold "anti-trans views".
The Scottish Government is looking to allow transgender Scots to self-identify as their acquired gender as part of the Gender Recognition Act reform.
The bill seeks to reduce the time a trans person would have to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months, followed by another three-month reflection period.
Slater compared the “hideous” wider trans debate here to “ridiculous bathroom laws” in America, which have seen transgender people banned from using facilities corresponding to their gender identity.
“Just let people get on with their lives. My understanding is that there’s money in this from certain right-wing American groups that’s been flooding into organisations in the UK,” Slater told the Herald on Sunday.
READ MORE: Edinburgh Council: Labour in talks for deal despite 'no coalitions' vow
Gallacher said Slater’s remarks were “deeply inflammatory” and would only “heighten tensions on a difficult and sensitive issue”.
“It’s outrageous and grossly offensive for Lorna Slater to compare women with legitimate concerns over their safety and rights with racists,” she said.
She also said last month women's sports should be reserved for female-born athletes, not trans women, after SNP ministers said transgender girls should be allowed to compete against cisgender females.
Craig Hoy appointed as chairman
Meanwhile, South Scotland Craig Hoy has been handed the role of chairman of the Scottish Tories in place of Rab Forman.
An MSP since last year, Hoy is also a member of East Lothan Council representing the Haddington and Lammermuir ward have been voted in in a by-election in 2019.
He is the deputy party spokesperson on mental health and social care as well as the convener of the Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs and a Member of the Cross-Party Group on mental health.
He contested the East Lothian seat in the 2019 General Election, where he finished third.
He is a former journalist, having worked for the BBC and was a co-founder of Holyrood magazine.
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