SCOTTISH Tory leader Russell Findlay has launched an extraordinary attack on Scotland’s civil service, claiming that many employed in the public sector have only succeeded due to being SNP “crony activists”.
In a speech in Glasgow on Monday, the Tory MSP claimed that Scotland’s public services are “run by members of a cosy self-serving club with no pressure to better serve the paying public”.
He claimed that the SNP had spent 18 years building “an obedient machinery of state to do their bidding”.
Findlay went on: “These yes men and women run Scotland’s vast and powerful public sector. The SNP have moulded them in their party’s image. Nobody dare question the received wisdom of the SNP paymasters.
“Dissent is not tolerated. And you had better wear the right lanyard.
“The state sector pays very well indeed. Many of those on six-figure salaries, cushy hours and gold-plated pensions would get nothing like that in a real world of private sector meritocracy.”
He further claimed that public bodies worked to “push the party line and suppress dissent”.
“A circular system of approval exists between the SNP state and its state-funded activists, state-funded charities and state-funded academics,” Findlay claimed. “The reach of the left-wing establishment includes quangos, third sector agencies, and charities that survive on government funding.”
The Scottish Tory leader claimed this amounted to a “public sector client state made up of crony activists”.
Elsewhere in his speech, Findlay claimed that the relationship between the SNP and the civil service is “concerning”, adding: “I have no doubt that most civil servants are professional and conscientious. Yet, we've frequently had grounds to question if all of them understand that they’re supposed to be servants of the people – not the politicians.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As across the UK, the Civil Service is required to support the elected government of the day in an impartial manner.
“We place the highest value on Scotland’s public services and appointees to public bodies are likewise expected to adhere to high standards of behaviour and ethical conduct.”
Balfour’s resignation came in the wake of Jamie Greene defecting to the Scottish LibDems, also accusing Findlay’s Tory Party of having descended into populism.
Speaking to press after his speech, Findlay said the Tories would not "take anything for granted today that necessarily would be the picture in May 2026".
Asked if he was the right person to lead the Conservatives, Findlay said: “What we have to do is be absolutely confident in what we stand for. We are Conservatives. We are the only party that has meaningfully stood up to the SNP Government for a decade.
“We have to have confidence in what we stand for — the basic Conservative values of personal responsibility, fair lower taxation and returning Scotland’s education system to where it should be.”
