Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy has called for Tory voters not to vote tactically in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

Mr Hoy, an MSP for the South of Scotland, made the call at the launch of the Conservatives' campaign in the constituency.

Glasgow city councillor Thomas Kerr is the party's candidate in the election which is expected in October and follows the ousting of former MP Margaret Ferrier in Scotland's first recall petition last week.

Ms Ferrier won the seat for the SNP at the general elections in 2015 and 2019, while Labour triumphed in the 2017 and 2010 votes. Ms Ferrier sat as an independent from September 2020 until her removal from parliament last week after the recall petition was successful following her breach of Covid rules.

"This is a Labour/SNP marginal. This seat was actually held by the Labour party until the last election, so obviously Labour will be fighting this seat hard just as we will fight for every vote in every part of the country to advocate that Scottish Conservatives vote Scottish Conservative," Mr Hoy told BBC Scotland's The Nine last night after the party launched its campaign in Rutherglen yesterday.

Earlier this year, The Sunday Times reported that the Scottish Conservatives would be urging Tory supporters to vote Labour in key constituencies at the general election under plans to “end nationalist dominance” in Scotland.

The paper said Scottish Tories were inviting rivals to co-operate in a “vote smart” strategy in a bid to shore up unionist votes in rural parts of Scotland, while lending Labour support in the central belt, which stretches from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

The proposed electoral pact by the Scottish Conservatives, which was later rejected by Labour, came in the wake of polling which pointed to the SNP haemorrhaging support since Humza Yousaf replaced Nicola Sturgeon as first minister and the ongoing investigation into the SNP's finances.

It was also reported in April that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross suggested Tory supporters should vote Labour at the next general election if that party’s candidate is best placed to beat the SNP. He told the Daily Telegraph that people should “do what’s best for the country” to loosen the SNP's grip on Scotland.

His position angered Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a UK Tory spokesman insisting that tactical voting was “emphatically not the view of the Conservative Party” and that voters should support the Tories “wherever they are standing”.

Ms Ferrier won the seat in 2019 with a majority of 5,230 over second placed Labour with the Conservatives coming third. Just over 8000 people in the constituency voted for the Tories, a fall of almost 1900 from 2017.

Labour is the favourites to win the marginal seat from the SNP who had a 5,000 majority in December 2019. It is being seen as a straight fight between the Labour candidate, Michael Shanks, a teacher who lives locally and who runs a scout group for disabled children, and the SNP’s Katy Loudon, who is a South Lanarkshire councillor.