Russell Findlay: I'm fighting tooth and nail to get Tory message across
The Scottish Tory leader talked art and politics during a visit to Kelvingrove with The Scotsman
Russell Findlay, the former tabloid journalist who exposed gangland thugs and once had acid thrown in his face, is discussing a particular painting he admires in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It's an Albert Marquet oil on canvas depicting the Port of Algiers.
"See when you come out of the streets of Glasgow, where more often than not it's grey and p*shing down, and you come in here and you look at that, it's like it’s transporting you off to somewhere sunny and warm," the Scottish Conservative leader says.
"The blue of the water, the blue of the sky. You can almost feel the heat on your face. So I like looking at that when it's particularly rainy, and if that makes me sound like an art w*nker, then I apologise."
I've arranged to meet Mr Findlay at Kelvingrove as part of a series of interviews in which we take part in a hobby or interest of the Scottish party leaders while quizzing them ahead of next month’s Holyrood election.
Kelvingrove, the Tory leader says, is the best place in Glasgow. I confess I didn’t really have him down as an art fan.
“People, I suppose, if they do know anything about me, they think I’m a hard-bitten former newspaper journalist, and obviously was subject to quite a high-profile extreme attack, and people very much form a view of you based upon that,” he says.
“But I’ve always liked art. I’m a proud owner of an art Higher from school - it’s one of my three Highers. I wasn’t very academic.”
He enjoys drawing cartoons, but rarely has the time these days. It is a pastime that perhaps runs contrary to his public image.
The doorstep acid attack Mr Findlay suffered in 2015, while working as an investigative journalist specialising in organised crime, has been widely covered. His attacker was later jailed.
Mr Findlay still takes safety precautions in his daily life. "I'm not living a life on edge, but I'm perhaps a little bit more aware than other people would be,” he says. "There would probably be certain places I'd think twice about going."
Like where? "Perhaps certain pubs, you might think there's an association, or certain businesses where you know the money behind them is not legit.
“There's a lot of business in Scotland which is founded on drug money. If there's a big crowd and I'm visible, I'd maybe be a little bit cautious about that."
Polls show his party on course for a near-existential collapse at next month’s election. Why does he think that is, and does he accept a role in its decline?
"We understand that the general election [in 2024] was our worst result in, I think, hundreds of years,” he says. “We knew that the party needed to rebuild."
Mr Findlay became leader around the same time as Kemi Badenoch took charge of the UK Tory Party down south.
"Anyone who thought that this would be some kind of quick fix and there would be a way of just repairing the damage that had been done, some of it self-inflicted - we knew this would take a long time,” he says.
"This election has come along very quickly. I've been leader just over a year. I think any reasonable person looking at it, within the party or outwith, will see that I'm doing my level best. I'm working tirelessly to re-engage with the public."
He says the Tories have published a "proper", costed manifesto.
"We're doing the hard work of producing policy, listening to people, and focusing on issues that matter to people,” he adds.
"If people across Scotland gave the Scottish Conservatives a fair hearing - that's all I ask for - they would see that our party does represent their interests, never mind your views of the Tories, who our opponents are very quick to mischaracterise.”
The Tories have been eaten alive by the rise of Reform UK. First Minister John Swinney, the leader of the SNP, says racism is partly behind growing support for Nigel Farage’s party. Does Mr Findlay agree?
"I think we have to be careful about throwing accusations of racism about,” he says. “I live in Glasgow, I see first-hand the impact that mass, uncontrolled immigration into our country is having, due to the failure of successive governments - ours included - to stop the boats. People coming here illegally to take advantage of our country at huge cost to the public purse, huge pressure on public services.”
He argues this has been “exacerbated” in Scotland due to SNP decisions.
The Tories once relied on being able to harness the anti-independence vote, but polls show that issue has slipped down the agenda for many Scots. Reform has added further complications.
"It's slipped down the agenda for voters, but it's not slipped down John Swinney's agenda,” Mr Findlay insists. “It's [the] number one agenda for John Swinney's SNP."
He adds: "This idea that we can just wish away the threat of nationalism - it's naïve and complacent and quite frankly reckless.
"And what worries me about all the other parties - they want to just believe that the show has moved on. It hasn't. We're talking about the SNP, it's all they care about - that's why Scotland is in such a terrible state.
"And you've got a party like Reform. John Swinney is rubbing his hands with glee at the fact Reform fighting this election means an SNP majority and an SNP victory is more likely if people vote for Reform."
Mr Farage “cannot be trusted on the union,” the Scottish Tory leader insists. “You can't wish the threat away."
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