OLYMPIAN and rape clause denier Brian Whittle has launched his bid to become the next leader of the Scottish Tories.

Mr Whittle had been a regular on the international athletics stage in the ’80s and ’90s, competing at 400 and 800m, going on to become a Tory MSP on the South of Scotland list in 2016.

Announcing his candidacy, Mr Whittle outlined his “core principles of education, enterprise and empowering people, adding that the party must be prepared to tell “hard truths.”

When asked for his views on ther two-child cap and its attendant rape clause in 2018, those “hard truths” included telling Holyrood Magazine: “The term ‘rape clause’ is an invention to beat the Tories with.

“It’s the invention of another political party.”

Mr Whittle joined Russell Findlay in the race to succeed Douglas Ross, forced to resign as Tory leader in June facing accusations of abandoning his own seat and deselecting a seriously ill colleague to install himself as candidate in the notionally safer Aberdeenshire North and Moray East — a seat he then lost.

The Scottish Tories are presently consulting members on how to run a leadership contest.