Former Scottish Conservative MSP: 'Britain needs a Labour government'

A former Scottish Conservative MSP has said that a Labour government is needed in the UK.

Professor Adam Tomkins, who represented the Glasgow region for the Tories between 2016 and 2021, said that the country is witnessing the party trashing the economy and its own brand.

In an article for the Herald newspaper, Tomkins said that it is time for the party to be in opposition.

“Britain needs a Labour government. That’s quite a line for a Tory to write, but it’s true,” he said.

“All governments run their course. The Thatcher/Major years came to their natural end just as the Blair/Brown years came to theirs. And now, it is clear, the Conservatives’ time is up.

“When Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor at the party’s conference in Liverpool this week, sounds more prudent than Kwasi Kwarteng, the new man in No 11, you know the Tories re in the deepest trouble.

“Conservative governments are elected not because people love them: they are elected when people trust them.

“And what we are witnessing right now is not only the Conservative Party trashing its own brand: it’s the Conservative Party trashing the economy.”

Tomkins said that the Conservatives will “deservedly” lose the next general election.

He told BBC Scotland: “The thing the Conservative Party exists to do is to hold office to secure the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom.

“This feels very much to me a moment like 1992 or 2008 when the country turns on the government.

“It’s absolutely clear that what the next election result will be and the Conservatives will lose it, they will deservedly lose it.”

The former MSP added: “It’s time for the Conservatives to be in opposition.”