A top Scottish Tory donor has been given an endorsement to become a Holyrood candidate amid internal claims of cronyism against Ruth Davidson.
Malcolm Offord, a city financier who has donated £147,500 to the Conservatives, has been given the thumbs up by the former party leader’s candidate committee.
The stamp of approval means that Offord’s name will be included in a letter sent to party members with the ballot papers for the Lothians regional list selection.
The endorsements are seen as a guide to the membership on who to vote for in the ranking competition to become a list candidate for the Conservatives.
The decision on who is approved is taken by party officials and signed off by Davidson.
Offord's inclusion is reported to have angered other candidates with a track record of local campaigning who claim to have been overlooked.
One party source told the Scotsman newspaper: “This whole process reeks of cronyism. It seems all you need to get an endorsement is to have deep pockets."
The approval is particularly embarrassing for former Tory MP Colin Clark who was rejected as a candidate by the same committee.
Offord has a long background of supporting the Conservatives having given £2500 to Michael Gove and nearly £150,000 to the party over a decade and a half.
The Greenock-born businessman also founded the ‘No Borders Campaign’ during the Scottish independence referendum to which he donated £20,000 and also worked for a think-tank founded by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.
He also stood to be the candidate in Ruth Davidson’s current seat, Edinburgh Central, finishing second in the ballot of members behind Scott Douglas.
A Scottish Conservative spokesman: “All candidates are judged solely on their merits and rankings are entirely dependent on votes of our supporters across Scotland."
