model-willem stands outside the Scottish Parliament, together with his team of MSPs to speak to a bunch of journalists and others.

Over the last week my team and I have had a lot of talks amongst each other and with others in the national party about the election result. It will come as no surprise that, even though we expected a loss in seats, we didn’t expect it to be this big. I’ve been Leader of the Scottish Conservatives for almost three weeks right now, three very turbulent and exciting weeks. Even though I’ve been the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives in a very unexpected way, I still feel very responsible for this loss.

After four consecutive terms with a Government led by the Conservatives we will not see a fifth one right now, even though the people of Scotland still thought we were their best option and the best party. I want to take this opportunity to thank my Deputy Leader, u/ThreeCommasClub, because without him we couldn’t have gotten this amount of seats. I also want to thank our entire team and every single voter that has lent their support to our party, I will fight for you and for the ideals that you’ve voted for.

We have negotiated two deals, one with the Liberal Democrats and New Britain, and one with the Liberal Democrats after New Britain decided not to leave the negotiation talks, when they rejected all their coalition deals. The Liberal Democrats rejected this deal and went for a deal with nationalist. I want to thank all the involved people in these negotiations, we are very thankful for the talks and the way they were done.

We will be heading for opposition, where a great task lies ahead of us in holding the new Government to account. We will work with the Government when we agree on stuff, but we will oppose policies and ideas that will damage Scotland, that will divide Scotland, that will be bad for Scotland, like a referendum on further devolution. I’m happy to say that I’ve told the leader of New Britain that the Scottish Conservatives will be working with New Britain against the devolution of welfare to Scotland.

I also hope that the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who wants to be First Minister and work with other parties, is going to change his mind on how he and his party respond to others in this Parliament. We have seen him and party members attack New Britain for not wanting to work with them in Government. If this is the prelude to the rest of the term we might see the most divisive term since the Scottish Greens were in power and that is not a good prospect.

My doors are always open for people if they want to work with the Scottish Conservatives, we will cooperate when we agree and we will oppose when we don’t. We will work for a stronger unionist voice and a stronger Scotland over these next six months.

Thank you.