MSP Jamie Greene finds new ‘home’ with Lib Dems day after quitting Tories

Former Scottish Conservative politician Jamie Greene has said joining the Liberal Democrats as their newest MSP was like “a breath of fresh air”.

Mr Greene was unveiled as the fifth Scottish Lib Dem MSP at the party’s conference in Inverness, welcomed on stage by UK leader Sir Ed Davey.

And as he addressed the conference, the MSP made a direct appeal to those whom he said were “scunnered” – a Scottish word meaning fed up – with the Conservatives.

The West of Scotland MSP left the Scottish Conservatives on Thursday, writing a stinging letter to party leader Russell Findlay which accused his former party of having a “Reform-lite agenda”.

But Mr Greene, who joined the Liberal Democrats on Friday – insisted there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.

He said: “In the last 48 hours, I’ve gone from being politically homeless, like many Scots right now, to joining you here today in my new home.”

Speaking on stage in Inverness, he told party supporters: “It really feels like a breath of fresh air to be in this room with you today.”

He used his speech to reach out to the “compassionate, centre right and decent Tories”, saying many of them had contacted him after he announced he was leaving the Tories.

Mr Greene said: “Like me, they were simply scunnered, they were scunnered with endless culture wars and the fringe issues that my former party has become obsessed with.”

No one should ever be afraid to speak their mind, no one should ever be afraid to do what their conscience tells them to do, no matter how difficult that is

He insisted: “In these dangerous times that we live in, let me be direct. The language of hatred, of right wing populism and of scapegoating people must be fought against and must be defeated.

“I also say to those people watching, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“If you too want to fight the Trumpism that has appeared on our political backyard, if you feel the same way as I do, then there is a home for you and that home is here.”

He continued: “No one should ever be afraid to speak out, no one should ever be afraid to speak their mind, no one should ever be afraid to do what their conscience tells them to do, no matter how difficult that is.

“Those are the sort of Liberal values I think most Scots stand for. They most certainly are the sort of Liberal values that I stand for.”

It means the Lib Dems now have five MSPs in their Holyrood group, while the Tories have 30.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex-Cole Hamilton said Mr Greene’s decision to leave the Tories had “sent a shockwave through British politics”.

He said Mr Greene was part of a “massive constituency of people who voted for, or joined, the Conservatives at a time when Ruth Davidson offered an inclusive and socially liberal vision for Scotland”.

But Mr Cole-Hamilton said the Conservative Party “have now wholly abandoned that vision”.

He then told supporters: “Jamie Greene is not going to be joining our party in the future. Because he did that this morning.”

In his resignation announcement on Thursday, Mr Greene had lambasted the Scottish Conservative leadership and their advisers.

He said the party he once knew “simply no longer exists” due to shifting to the right to combat the threat of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Mr Greene has been outspoken in his support for LGBT+ rights and defied the Tories’ opposition to controversial gender recognition reforms to vote for the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill at Holyrood.

He launched a bid to be Scottish Tory leader after Douglas Ross stepped down last year, but later went on to back fellow MSP Murdo Fraser’s unsuccessful leadership campaign.