Scottish Tory leadership candidates have admitted they will need to stand up to their UK bosses if the party hopes to succeed in the 2026 Holyrood election.
During a leadership special of Holyrood Sources podcast, Meghan Gallacher, Murdo Fraser and Russell Findlay were told the future of the Scottish Tories was in "real trouble" if they dynamic with the leader at Westminster wasn't changed.
The three candidates are in the race to replace Douglas Ross as leader, with a winner to be declared on September 27.
Speaking during the podcast, Alex Salmond's former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein told the candidates the party needed to lose the "branch manager" tag often assigned to them by the SNP.
Ms Gallacher, the party's former deputy leader, vowed she would not "bow down" to the will of the UK party, adding MSPs in Holyrood had to "firefight" decisions taken by previous Conservative administrations.
She said: "We've got a really good opportunity here. We've got two leadership elections happening at the same time. So this is an opportunity to look at how (the party) functions.
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"We need to put ourselves in the room. When it was previous UK governments we were very much not in the room at all times, and it meant that we had to firefight a lot of issues here in Scotland."
She added: "There needs to be that ability to make sure that we have our own strong messaging and an ability to set out our stall as the Scottish Conservatives.
"Yes we're still a part of the UK party but we need to become distinct."
Meanwhile, Mr Fraser admitted he was surprised by how "disengaged" Scottish party voters had become.
He said: “I certainly would like to see whoever becomes leader, whether it’s me or Meghan or Russell, be able to say we will take a stand for Scotland.”
Mr Fraser also advocated for change from the new Scottish Tory leader, adding party members felt decisions had been taken by a small group of people at the top of the party.
He said Mr Ross' decision to stand as a candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, in place of David Duguid who was deselected for ill health, "cost us that seat" and allowed the "SNP one victory in the general election."
The podcast also touched on "blue on blue attacks" which has saw senior party members brief against candidates.
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Ms Gallacher was forced to clarify she was not dropping out of the race at the weekend after members had been told by a "senior" source she would be endorsing one of her opponents.
Speaking during the podcast, Mr Findlay was the only candidate to state he was "happy" with the positivity of the leadership campaign, with Ms Gallacher calling for unity as the party prepares for the "tough task" of the Holyrood election.
Mr Fraser said it had not been a "particularly happy experience".
The podcast also saw the candidates quizzed on why they did not believe they could be first minister by 2026, given polling showed the SNP was declining in popularity.
The Scottish Conservatives are currently the second largest party in Holyrood with 31 MSPs, but polls also suggest Labour is likely to replace them with 40 seats to the SNPs 41 in 2026.
But all three candidates reiterated they would work with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to make him first minister over the SNP.
In the STV leadership debate, they admitted they did not think aspiring to be first minister was realistic in 2026.
However, expanding on this for the Holyrood Sources podcast, Mr Fraser said his party should not rule itself out of ever leading government in Scotland.
He said: "We shouldn't be going into this thing thinking that we're going to be the bridesmaid.
“We’re not expecting to be first minister in 2026. You would probably take us away on straight jacket if we said that.
“But there should not be a limit to our ambition. We don’t want to just change our party, we want to change our country.
“I think that one day it’s not unreasonable to aspire for a Scottish Conservative first minister.”
Meanwhile, Priti Patel has been knocked out of the UK Tory leadership contest.
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