A Tory who announced he was quitting Highland Council because he was “worn down” is now standing for re-election 100 miles from his home.
Former councillor Andrew Baxter – who is also a close aide to a senior member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet – lives at Kinlochleven in the west Highlands.
But he has now emerged as a surprise council election candidate on the other side of the vast region, in the Cromarty Firth ward in Easter Ross.
Mr Baxter, who is the sub-postmaster at Kinlochleven, had served as a councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan since 2012.
He was as an independent councillor for most of his tenure, despite having worked for more than a decade for Brandon Lewis, a previous Conservative Party chairman who is currently the secretary of state for Northern Ireland in the UK Government.
Mr Baxter, a former Lochaber committee chairman at Highland Council, is standing in Cromarty Firth just months after announcing that he intended to step down.
He said at the time he had “simply had enough” and was “completely worn down” by a culture in which he claimed independent-minded Highland councillors were “attacked and marginalised”.
In campaign leaflets sent out in the ward ahead of the local government elections on May 5, Mr Baxter is described as “your local Scottish Conservative & Unionist candidate”.
‘Laughably misleading’
Molly Nolan, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the ward, said: “Standing a retiring Fort William councillor who lives 100 miles away from the ward he is contesting really is pathetic.
“The Scottish Tories are in a sorry state here in the Highlands, and people in Cromarty Firth ward deserve far better.
“The laughably misleading letter accompanying Mr Baxter’s candidacy is the cherry on top.
“As usual the Conservatives are taking the electorate for fools – but people here will see right through them.”
Mr Baxter was kicked out of Highland Council’s ruling independent group in 2020 amid a row over his “months of speeches and votes against the administration”.
Last night, Mr Baxter responded to Ms Nolan, saying “Lib Dem hypocrisy no knows bounds”.
He added: “Maybe their candidate should condemn her own party for fielding candidates in similar circumstances in my existing ward for the last two elections.
“The issues facing the residents of Cromarty Firth are the same as those across Highland.
“That’s a crumbling road network, dwindling council services, and an Inverness-dominated council sucking resources from other areas.
“All these problems presided over by an administration with the Lib Dems pulling the strings.
“So rather than playing silly political games Molly Nolan should be focusing on those issues.”
Links to Tory minister
In 2015, Mr Baxter hit the headlines over his links to Mr Lewis, the Great Yarmouth MP.
At the time, Labour called for an investigation into claims, which were denied, that he was being paid taxpayers money to carry out political work for Mr Lewis.
Records show he has earned close to £1,000 per month in recent years providing “research and other parliamentary support” to Mr Lewis, including constituency media and MP correspondence.
Mr Baxter spoke last year about his shock at the murder of Conservative MP Sir David Amess, revealing he had served as his area campaign director in Essex in the early 2000s.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Voters know that all over Scotland, only the Scottish Conservatives are strong enough to beat the SNP.
“The Lib Dems went backwards again at last year’s Holyrood election and they’re now so weak that they’re not even considered a party in the Scottish Parliament.”
The other candidates in the Cromarty Firth ward are Tamala Collier for the SNP, Daniel Reat for the Greens, Kirsty Stewart for Labour, and the independents Eric Fraser, Maxine Morley-Smith, Pauline Munro and Kate Stevenson.