Tory manifesto launch shows a party still struggling to find its place

The Scottish Tories are making it clear that they are after your peach vote.

Perhaps it’s just pragmatism, given the current state of the polls for the beleaguered party. They are acknowledging that holding onto their constituencies will be a struggle and so better to manage expectations (and if they do keep any, that will feel like a significant win).

Or maybe it’s the fact their leader’s re-election is essentially reliant on losing one of the constituencies they hold. The polls currently suggest the party will only win enough votes in the west of Scotland to see one Tory MSP elected. Should Jackson Carlaw – a former Tory leader with decent name recognition and a good local reputation – retain his Eastwood seat, there may be no room at Holyrood for Russell Findlay.

When asked about this possibility at the press huddle after launching his party’s 2026 manifesto, Findlay was dismissive. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m fighting for every vote and I’m confident,” he said.

Confident he may be, but in giant words above the stage from which he was speaking earlier were the words “on May 7, peach vote”. Surely that sends a signal to voters that the party is waving the white flag in constituency races across the country.

Not true, Findlay later said, given his party is contesting every seat. “We will fight for the constituencies we hold, and we will fight for others where we’re in second place,” he added. The push for the peach vote was simply the “smart way” to stop the SNP winning a majority.

Yet that also reveals how unambitious the party has become. Where once Ruth Davidson tried to pitch herself as the next first minister in waiting, Findlay’s version of the Conservatives would seemingly be happy with any election result other than one in which the SNP returns 65 or more MSPs.

With this framing, even if the Tory cohort of MSPs shrinks to meagre numbers they can at least claim a victory of sorts. Every Tory MSP that is returned is one less for the SNP. Forget that that is also true of every other party running in this election.

Of course, Findlay has tried to put some water between the Conservatives and the other unionist parties. Labour and the Lib Dems, he said, are “silent and complacent” about the threat of another independence referendum. And on the fact Keir Starmer has insisted he would not allow one to take place, Findlay accused him of being a “weak and wobbly prime minister with a history of U-turns” who had “one eye on the next UK general election and future coalitions he might seek to survive”. He asked: “Can we really trust Keir Starmer to say no to John Swinney?”

Turning on Reform, he pointed to the chaotic start to Malcolm Offord’s campaign in Scotland. The insurgent right-wing party had to drop several candidates before the close of nominations over various blunders, and a historic homophobic remark made by Offord meant he had “spent the campaign going in and out of hiding”, Findlay said. “How can they be trusted to take on the SNP if they can’t even sort their own candidate vetting process?”

But, Findlay insisted, he was not speaking at this event in Edinburgh today to attack his opponents. He was here to also set out why voters should place their trust in his party. The manifesto contains all the usual items you might expect from the Scottish Conservatives: lower taxes, fixing potholes, more bobbies on the beat. The headline-grabbing proposal was to give pensioners an extra £500 – red meat for the party’s base, and hardly anything groundbreaking.

It all speaks to a party whose best hope is to return to Holyrood the fourth largest party, ahead of the Scottish Greens and Scottish Lib Dems. And even that is not guaranteed.