Two Aberdeenshire councillors who became the first in Scotland to join Reform today lift the lid on their decision to jump ship from the under-pressure Tories.
Mark Findlater, the former Aberdeenshire Council leader, and Mearns councillor Laurie Carnie, were tight-lipped when they announced their departure last year.
But in an exclusive interview with the P&J, they lay bare how party in-fighting – and a drink with Nigel Farage – contributed to their decision to rip up their membership.
In the interview, they reveal:
- The decision to drop former Tory MP David Duguid caused “huge protest”.
- A “contentious” atmosphere drove them from the Tory group.
- The attraction to momentum building for Reform in the north-east.
Why did they leave?
Mr Findlater quit the Tories in mysterious circumstances in October with a cryptic quote by Chronicles of Narnia author C.S Lewis.
Today he reveals a big part of the move was the decision to de-select former Tory MP David Duguid from standing in the general election, after he suffered a spinal illness and was hospitalised for months.
It was later announced former Conservative leader Douglas Ross would stand in the new Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency instead.
This caused a “huge protest” among party members in Banff and Buchan, including among the fishing and farming communities who rated their former MP.
Mr Findlater, previously Mr Duguid’s campaign manager, said: “The fact is when Douglas Ross was looking for help from people, he didn’t get it.
“And there had to be outside people coming in and delivering his leaflets, because they felt so strongly about what the party had done to somebody who had suffered a horrendous illness, and ‘yeah, thanks very much, I’ll take your seat, thank you’.
“What Douglas Ross did was reprehensible.”
Mr Findlay told the P&J last year he wanted to build bridges in the party, following the “really unfortunate” events.
Speaking at the time, the Tory leader said he would welcome Mr Duguid as a potential candidate going into 2026.Â
Edinburgh ‘cabal’ runs party
The Troup councillor was also turned off by the party’s handling of the leadership contest to replace Mr Ross.
He said while he likes new leader Russell Findlay on a personal level, he was also the “establishment pick” of a “cabal” operating in Edinburgh.
Mr Findlater also referenced his dismay being branded by an anonymous colleague as a “village fool” over his lack of plan as leader in 2022.
After being forced out as council leader, he later felt he had “no voice” within the council’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration.
“The decisions were made behind closed doors, and this was the opposite of when I was leader because I wanted to be open, transparent and inclusive”, he said.
“I was treated badly and treated with a bit of disdain.”
Initially he though he would continue on as an independent councillor but after attending a Reform meeting in September, he was “refreshingly surprised” by how the party conducted itself.
He said: “There was no spin and no avoiding answering the questions.”
For Ms Carnie, her journey to Reform started with a drink with Mr Farage during his GB News appearance in Aberdeen in 2023.
“I’ve always followed him and listened and I just aligned with the politics of Reform and what they were saying compared to what we were being fed”, she said.
The Mearns councillor didn’t like the in-fighting at the top of the Tories around the time of Rishi Sunak’s run as leader, and she thinks it “filtered down” to local government.
“The council group was very split, a definite divide. I just didn’t enjoy working in that environment anymore. So I made the decision to leave and spoke to Reform.”
However, in recent weeks, Reform UK is facing its own implosion. MP Rupert Lowe has been suspended from the party over allegations of workplace bullying.
The Met Police launched an investigation into alleged “verbal threats” by the MP.
Mr Lowe insists the allegations are a politically motivated retaliation for his criticism of Mr Farage last week.
Why join Reform?
What was it about Reform that appealed to the two disillusioned councillors?
The pair seem most supportive of the party’s stance around “net stupid zero”, a phrase coined by deputy party leader Richard Tice.
Despite the North Sea being a mature basin, they think oil and gas licences should be fast-tracked to boost the local economy and poured scorn on the money being spent to reach “unobtainable” 2030 and 2045 climate targets.
Both believe the party is gaining in momentum across the region they serve and expect Reform to do “very well” in Aberdeenshire at next year’s Holyrood election.
Businessman Conrad Ritchie picked up 26% of the vote for Reform in a Fraserburgh council by-election last November.
But the party’s best Scottish result at the last Westminster election came in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, costing Mr Ross his seat.
There are now three branches in the north-east parliamentary region and the pair say public meetings are well attended.
Mr Findlater said: “It is a protest party, right? But there are voters coming from the SNP, from Labour, from the Conservatives.
“There’s a lot of people who have never been involved in politics before and they’re coming forward and they see there needs to be real change.”
Neither of them regret their decision to ditch their former party with Mr Findlater saying a “weight’s been lifted off me”.
He said: “It was actually the Conservative Party that left us and that’s the feeling we both have with this. Really I’m grieving because I helped to make the north-east a bastion of Conservatism but that no longer exist, it’s gone.”
The Scottish Conservatives declined to comment.
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