JACKSON Carlaw has become the new Scottish Tory leader after a bitter election battle against a right wing rival.
He will succeed Ruth Davidson in the job after a winning 4917 votes against South Scotland MSP Michelle Ballantyne, who won 1581.
However, the contest was marked by tensions between the two candidates and mud-slinging.
Carlaw entered the race as interim leader and faced off against the pro-Boris and pro-Brexit Ballantyne.
His supporters believed he would win comfortably, but his campaign wobbled at one point and the pair rounded on each other.
Ballantyne used an article to have a dig at the December general election campaign he fronted, which led to the party losing most of its seats.
“We had the right candidates, but our party in Scotland lacked vision and ambition,” she wrote.
He hit back: “I'm always impressed by people who find the courage of their convictions after the event but have little to say about it beforehand.”
Carlaw also said Ballantyne was the only member of the Shadow Cabinet never to submit “a single policy proposal”, while she accused her opponent of leaks to the press.
In a speech after his victory, Carlaw said his party would be a clear alternative to Nicola Sturgeon and her "morally and politically bankrupt" Government.
He said he is determined the Tories will oust the SNP from power in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, insisting the nationalists are "failing" Scotland after 13 years in office.
He won the backing of 4,917 Tory party members in Scotland in the leadership contest - comfortably ahead of Ballantyne on 1,581 votes.
Almost 60% of the party's 10,911 "eligible electors" cast their vote in the contest.
Carlaw will start making appointments to his top team immediately - and is also scheduled to speak to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the UK Conservative Party leader, on Friday afternoon.
He made clear the Scottish Tories will "change further and for the better", with new faces and new thinking.
As part of that, he pledged to push ahead with a review of party policies - which could see the Tories U-turn on their opposition to free higher education in Scotland as well as considering their position on the two-child cap brought in by the Conservatives at Westminster on some welfare payments.
After the policy review, Carlaw said he will then ask "the people of Scotland to elect a Scottish Conservative government as the largest party at Holyrood in 2021.
He added: "In those circumstances I would hope to be the first minister delivering on that alternative programme."The result today demonstrates I have the clear confidence of the party. I have a bigger share of the vote than Boris Johnson achieved in his leadership election, I have a bigger share of the vote than Ruth Davidson achieved, a bigger share of the vote than David Cameron achieved in any of the previous Conservative Party leadership elections."
