Laidlaw tells Tories 'keep mouths shut' over funding

LORD Laidlaw, the multi-millionaire peer who bankrolls the Scottish Conservatives, has issued a blunt threat to withdraw funding from the beleaguered party in a move which would topple it into a massive financial crisis.

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, the 62-year-old - who is worth an estimated 499m - said that he will have to "seriously reconsider" his funding if the party insists on a breakaway from the UK party.

He will also take the drastic step if the Conservatives decide to back so-called "fiscal autonomy" - the plan to move control over taxation to the Scottish Parliament.

Lord Laidlaw's comments come after a week of continuing turmoil within the Scottish party following recriminations over its poor election performance.

Leading MSPs have called for drastic action in response, including proposals to sever its link with the UK Conservatives and to back stronger powers for Holyrood, all in a bid to prove its 'Scottishness'.

Lord Laidlaw, who is understood to have contributed up to 500,000 for the Scottish Conservatives' election campaign last month, has long sustained the party's finances, allowing them to maintain an expensive headquarters on Edinburgh's Princes Street.

He rarely intervenes in policy issues, but has now aired his views in public, in what will be seen as a firm warning to the party's MSPs.

He gave plans to cut the party loose from the UK short shrift, saying: "The Scottish party already has a strong autonomous voice; they can make their own policies on affairs that relate to Scotland and choose their own commitments. The UK is a union and we are part of it, and I think we could remain as we are."

He was even more disparaging of the fiscal autonomy plan, claiming the current funding deal - under which the Treasury hands more to Scotland per head than to other parts of the UK - should be supported.

"I think fiscal autonomy is nonsense. It would mean huge cuts," he said. "Scotland has a fantastic deal at the moment and we would be daft to change that."

And he had a curt message to those within his party who are backing it: "They should keep their mouths shut if they have got any sense."

Asked if he would stop funding the party if it backed either policy, the peer said: "I would have to seriously reconsider my support."

He also said he backed the Scottish party leader, David McLetchie, "100%".

That message will be a relief to McLetchie, who has suffered a torrid week, forced to order his MSPs into silence at a private meeting last Tuesday in a bid to restore calm. That call was seen as a rebuke to Murdo Fraser, the party's enterprise spokesman, who has called for a debate about the party's constitution.

But McLetchie is still facing a wider party in mutinous mood, who accuse him of dithering over policies, and failing to set out a clear Scottish agenda.

Lord Laidlaw said he had no obvious answers on how to turn around Tory fortunes. "That is the $64,000 question. If I had an answer I would be talking to people straight away. The election result was disappointing, no doubt. I wish I had an answer about what would turn us around, but I don't have one."