Peterhead residents have their say as Douglas Ross' election seat put under the spotlight

After a week at sea, skipper John Clark returned to Peterhead Harbour, and he has far little time for the parties looking to secure the constituency in next month's General Election.

"I spoke to a lad last night and he said politicians are like nappies - they have to be changed daily, and for the same reason," John said as the Daily Record caught up with him dockside.

That mistrust and disdain for politicians is everywhere in Peterhead - for good reason, and our sister title went to see how voters feel ahead of the upcoming vote.

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Fishermen who overwhelmingly backed Brexit in 2016, thinking it would end hated EU fisheries policies, feel betrayed by the Tories for keeping them locked into Brussels quotas.

In Scotland, unsuccessful SNP and Green attempts to foist no-fishing zones - or Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) - on 10 per cent of waters were met with outrage.

Now, these people have as their Tory candidate the outgoing Scottish leader Douglas Ross - but only after shoving his party colleague and respected former MP David Duguid out of the way.

In a town like Peterhead already distrustful of politicians, that was perhaps a bold move for a man who wants these people’s votes.

Clark, in charge of the vessel Reliance III and a skipper for more than three decades, said: “What the Scottish Conservatives have done to Mr Duguid is a total disgrace. To deselect him when he's recovering from a serious bout of illness in hospital is really, really bad.

“And I actually think the Conservatives are going to pay dearly at the election for it. It’s just the way it’s been handled… there’s questions over Ross’ expenses as well.”

In 2019, Duguid retained the old seat covering this area, Banff and Buchan, pretty convincingly for the Conservatives over the SNP.

He wanted to stand again this year in the redrawn Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency - and indeed, had been approved by local Tory members.

But Duguid, who had been recovering from spinal surgery, was set aside at the 11th hour by party bosses - or as critics have more colourfully put it, stabbed in the back.

All to make way for Ross - who, despite promising he would forthwith stick to Holyrood, has now U-turned to gun for another Westminster seat, even agreeing to sacrifice his leadership of the Scottish Tories to see it through, and after fury from his own ranks.

Clark can only laugh when I ask him if he’s ever seen a party leader quit midway through an election before. But he’s far less amused by how Duguid has been treated.

“I actually think even if David Duguid wheeled about in a wheelchair or a mobility scooter, he still would have got the vote,” he said. "Regardless of what happened with Brexit and all that betraying, he still did a lot of work for the fishing industry behind the scenes.

“I had words with him to the effect of ‘you betrayed us, do one, eff off, I won’t vote for you again’. But really, behind the scenes, he was a hard-working person and the way he’s been treated is terrible.”

In Peterhead town centre, local man Willie Aird is also under no illusions. “I think the undecided voter may feel [Ross] has done the dirty. He’s got this issue with his expenses coming up as well now. It seems he doesn’t know himself what he wants to be.

“Is he an MSP, is he a leader, is he an MP, is he a linesman? I don’t know. It may sway a few voters although it’s a strong Conservative seat here."

How is he going to vote? “I’m not a Tory fan and now Douglas Ross has thrown his hat into the ring, I’ll be anybody but Douglas Ross.

“I was conscious before I might have been Lib Dem or something like that but definitely SNP now just to keep Douglas Ross out.”

The Nationalist candidate is Fraserburgh councillor Seamus Logan - hoping to restore the SNP to what was once their heartlands, with Banff and Buchan previously held by the party for 30 years between Alex Salmond and Eilidh Whiteford.

In the cafe of the Fishermen’s Mission charity, we asked retired fisher Peter Strachan how he’s feeling about the election: “Terrible.” But he liked Duguid. “It’s obvious he’s been stabbed in the back. But I wasn’t going to vote for him anyway.”

It turns out he's backing Reform: “I’ll never vote for Labour. I voted for the SNP in the past, I’ll never vote for them again. The Conservatives have let us down. There’s nobody else but Nigel.”

The received wisdom is that Nigel Farage’s Reform Party won’t be a huge factor in Scotland come polling day.

But Clark thinks the unique circumstances of Ross’ seizure of the Tory candidacy from Duguid - plus the area’s pro-Brexit sympathies - could see the outgoing Conservative leader face a real challenge from his right.

Reform’s candidate is Jo Hart - who we heard was expected in the town later that day to speak to local fishermen.

Clark said: “After what Douglas Ross has done, I think there will be a huge protest vote against Douglas Ross which will be bad for him, as it’s more or less giving this seat to the SNP. I think Reform will do a bit better here.”

For Shirley Bowden, who runs local microbrewery Brew Toon with her son, she’s not sure what to make of Ross.

But of Duguid, she said: “David Duguid’s actually been in here. He came across as being friendly, he introduced himself, he took some pictures with us and he asked how we felt about our business. He asked how we felt about our business, so yeah, he was very open to any ideas.”

In Peterhead as in other towns and villages along the north-east coast, fishing has long dominated political debate - but it’s not the only issue in this newly-enlarged constituency.

Bowden told us: “They need to do more to lower people’s costs and give families the opportunity to go out and spend money.

“Everyone would like to see higher wages but what I hear a lot is also housing problems. It’s the basics. And you hear a lot about that here in Peterhead. The politicians aren’t trying hard enough.”

Pensioner Chris Chester, who we meet outside the local Iceland store, has given up on voting completely.

On Ross, she said: "If he walked past me right now, I wouldn't know who they are. I'd always been SNP but after everything with them, I just said, 'well, I'm not going to vote anymore'."

Outside a cafe, care assistant Shona told us: "Basically it's the same as every election - every one of them is a bunch of crooks. Promise you one thing, and do another."