JUNE 10 2024
“Russell Findlay is a tough-talking former crime reporter who is also whip smart and unafraid of taking on the powerful clans and cliques that run Scotland – both in the elevated political sphere and the country’s violent underworld.
“He is the party’s shadow justice secretary but before taking on the additional duties that come with a frontbench role, he was a regular columnist for the Scottish Daily Express.
“Elected to Holyrood in 2021 as a Conservative MSP for West Scotland, he previously worked as director of communications for Mr Ross. Seen as fiercely loyal to his former boss, party sources say it is extremely unlikely that any of the briefings to the press came from his office.”
It adds: “Before entering politics, Findlay was a journalist for STV, the Scottish Sun and the Sunday Mail.
“But it was an incident in 2015 that sealed his reputation as one of the toughest characters in a notoriously tough trade (although the newsrooms of Glasgow and other Scottish cities are no longer anything like the boozy, brawling bear pits they once were).
“Findlay, then with the Scottish Sun, had been working on a series of hard-hitting investigations into the Glasgow gangland war between the Daniel and Lyons crime families. On the morning of December 23, 2015, a man wearing a Royal Mail jacket called at his front door in Glasgow asked him to sign for a parcel.
“While he was distracted, the man threw liquid in his face and he felt a burning sensation on his right cheek and a blurriness in his right eye. The man then threw the bottle (later established to contain sulphuric acid) at him but missed, before they began wrestling on the ground in front of the house.
“The attacker was Paisley gangster William ‘Basil’ Burns, who stood trial 18 months later along with Alexander Porter. They were also charged with attempting to murder another gangland figure, Ross Sherlock, by shooting at him in broad daylight near a primary school in Bishopbriggs in September 2015.”
The report goes on to deal with some of the stories Findlay, who like his boss Ross is marrfied to a serving police officer, wrote for the Sunday Mail.
Far more likely to succeed Douglas Ross at Holyrood is 49-year-old Craig Hoy, another former journalist. He currently serves as the chairman of the Scottish Conservatives since 2022 and is a member of the Shadow Cabinet.
Prior to his political career, Hoy worked as a journalist for organizations such as the BBC and co-founded Holyrood magazine. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region since 2022.