The Tory leadership hopeful backed by an MSP who doesn't exist

It seems the UK Conservative party leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat is keen to make a big deal of his popularity among Tory MSPs – even the ones who don’t exist.

This morning, his team proudly announced, via a press release, that two more of them had signed up to back his campaign.

One of those was Alexander Brown MSP.

But there was a slight problem – there is no MSP called Alexander Brown.

After a couple of references to this mystery politician, Tom Tugendhat’s press release then switched to talking about Alexander Stewart.

This makes a bit more sense. There is a Scottish Conservative MSP of this name who represents Mid Scotland and Fife.

Around 30 minutes after their original press release, Mr Tugendhat’s team had a new one issued with the correct name on it.

The original announcement stated that the shadow security minister was the only candidate “who has taken the time to meet with Scottish Conservative Party members” and talked up his commitment to the Scottish wing of the party.

So getting the name of one of his MSP backers wrong is a slightly embarrassing mishap for the campaign.

Mr Tugendhat probably won’t lose sleep over this slip-up – he won’t have personally written the press release, and he’s got 10 of the Scottish Conservatives’ 31 MSPs backing him.

Bearing in mind a number aren’t taking sides (such as the current Scottish leader Douglas Ross) – that suggests real support among the Scottish wing of the party.

A source close to Tom Tugendhat said: “Mistakes happen. What matters is that Tom has two more MSPs endorsing him, building on the eight who endorsed him on Monday.”

They went on to say that the Kent MP had spent time recently in Scotland and would “always champion Scottish success, because all parts of the Union must succeed for us all to.

“If this unfortunate typo highlights his passion for the nation, then we can only welcome it.”

Scottish Conservative members will be casting votes for both their Scottish leader and the UK party leader in the next couple of months, and other candidates have made trips north of the border in this campaign.

The party does not publish membership numbers, though there’s thought to be fewer than 10,000 Scots signed up.

There are three candidates looking to replace Douglas Ross in a contest that has proven bitter at points.

A new Scottish leader will be announced on 27 September.

Six candidates are vying to replace Rishi Sunak as UK party leader. The winner will be announced on 2 November.

The relationship between the leader of the Scottish Conservatives and the leader of the UK party has been strained at points in recent years, even with a variety of individuals occupying both roles.

If Mr Tugendhat wins, he’ll hope that he can keep things on a more harmonious footing.

There may also be a bit more proofreading of any press releases about Conservative MSPs.