Conservative MSP Jamie Greene has resigned from the party’s Holyrood group, he has announced.
The former frontbencher, in a letter to party leader Russell Findlay, said he had made the “difficult” decision to quit the Tory whip with immediate effect.
The West of Scotland MSP accused the party of becoming “Trump-esque in both style and substance”.
He also claimed the Tories were in a “grotesque dance with Nigel Farage” in an attempt to win over right-wing voters.
Greene, who sits on the left of the party, was one of six Conservative MSPs who ran for the leadership last summer, with Findlay ultimately winning the contest.
Green said when he joined the party under the leadership of Ruth Davidson in Scotland and David Cameron at Westminster it supported a “socially liberal view of the world”.
“It was a party that made a young, working class, gay man from Greenock feel very welcome,” he said. “I do not regret making that decision.”
But the MSP claimed the “modern” party he joined “no longer exists”.
He said: “Instead of proudly leading on equality, we now run the very serious and immediate risk of becoming once again the party of social division and morality wars.
“A cursory glance at our social media output confirms this fear.
“My generation of Conservative politician helped put the nasty party name in the bin, but it now appears that it was just filed away in a drawer marked pending.”
Greene first ran as a Conservative candidate at the 2015 general election. He won a seat to Holyrood in 2016 and was re-elected on the West Scotland list.
He has served as the party’s spokesperson on justice, education and transport.
The MSP previously said he was sacked from the frontbench in 2023 for supporting Scotland’s gender recognition reforms.
Before being elected to parliament in 2016, he worked in the media.
The Scottish Conservatives have been asked to comment.
