A FORMER Labour general election candidate who stood against Alex Salmond has landed a job working for a Tory MSP despite strong objections of party bosses.
Ross Thomson, who represents North East Scotland, defied senior Conservative figures who explicitly asked him to abandon his plan to take on Braden Davy as a staffer.
At the weekend, it emerged that Mr Davy had joined Ruth Davidson's party, quitting Labour due to what he sees as a 'weak' stance on Scottish Independence and 'patronising' approach to the EU. He has been employed by Mr Thomson, one of four Conservatives to be elected through the North East list in May, for around three weeks but his defection only emerged publicly as Labour began its annual conference.
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It is understood that the appointment of Mr Davy sparked anger from Conservative members in the north east, who passed on their concerns around his previous political affiliation to headquarters.
Mr Davy worked in the office of Anne Begg, at that point the Labour MP for Aberdeen South, and was an enthusiastic Westminster candidate. A 2015 election leaflet proclaimed: 'Only Labour can stop the Tories.' He eventually came fourth in last year's contest in Gordon, trailing former First Minister Mr Salmond by almost 25,000 votes.
But Mr Thomson, one of only a handful MSPs who backed leaving the EU in June's referendum, is believed to have struck up a strong working relationship with Mr Davy during the Scottish out campaign and the rookie MSP insisted on taking him on, with staffing matters ultimately for individual members to decide.
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Mr Davy, who is also a Royal Navy reserve, became assistant director of Scottish Vote Leave, the official campaign group that backed Brexit. Mr Thomson remains a councillor in Aberdeen, and has pledged to donate his salary of up to £20,000 to local charities.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: "We don’t comment on internal matters, but can say there is no investigation into this appointment. MSPs are free to hire whoever they see fit to carry out their work."
Mr Thomson and Mr Davy did not respond to phone calls from The Herald. However, explaining his defection to our sister paper The Sunday Herald at the weekend, Mr Davy insisted he had backed Labour during the Holyrood election campaign but quit after the EU referendum due to disillusionment with his former party.
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He said: "Labour’s attitude on the EU was belittling and patronising... After the [EU] referendum, Ruth Davidson respected the vote but some people in Labour decided to back independence. Labour is weak on independence. It is no longer strong on the constitutional question. It doesn’t seem unwavering."
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