FORMER Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie is being heavily tipped for the House of Lords, the Sunday Herald understands.
Goldie, who presided over six years of electoral decline for the Tories, is believed to be "in the system" for a peerage, a party source said.
The peerage would be the fourth bestowed on a sitting MSP and the first for a female member at Holyrood.
However, the prospect of an honour was mocked by one Tory source, as Goldie, a West of Scotland list MSP, has never won a Holyrood constituency, and even became leader of the Scottish Tories without an election.
Goldie, 62, has been an MSP since 1999. A former lawyer, she replaced David McLetchie as Tory leader unopposed in 2005 after he was forced to resign after an expenses scandal.
Under Goldie's leadership, the Scottish Tories performed poorly in almost every national vote, culminating in 2011's disaster. Going into that year's Scottish elections with 17 MSPs, she ended up with just 15 and the party's worst-ever share of the vote. Within a week, Goldie announced she would quit.
One Tory source said: "This would be a very gracious award for somebody who oversaw the loss of so many Conservative votes in Scotland."
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