The close of 2024 marks the end of something of a rollercoaster year for Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Tim Eagle.
The former Buckie councillor – who also led the Conservative group on Moray Council before stepping down at the 2022 election – began the year with a bolt from the blue when he became a list MSP.
Tim Eagle became a Highlands and Islands list MSP early in 2024. Picture: Daniel Forsyth
Standing against the SNP’s Richard Lochhead in the Moray constituency, a duel which the sitting MSP was to go on and win, Mr Eagle was also fifth on the Tory list for Highlands and Islands region behind then Scottish party leader Douglas Ross, Jamie Halcro Johnston, Edward Mountain and Donald Cameron, who were all returned to Holyrood. However, fate was to throw a curve ball when when Mr Cameron resigned his seat in the Scottish Parliament to take up a role with the Scotland Office at Westminster in the House of Lords.
Reflecting on the rapid turn of events early 2024 brought, he said: “Do you know what, it’s been nuts, absolutely nuts.
“At the beginning of last year I think I was working for Scottish Land and Estates; I’d left the council because I was exhausted.
“I got offered a job by a guy called Peter Graham and Associates in Elgin which was rural surveying, which I was qualified to do so it just a natural career transition.
“Then Douglas Ross phones me up and I was thinking to myself ‘Oh, Douglas, what are you doing to me?’. I’ve told the story many times but it’s a true story, he literally phones me up at quarter to six or whatever it was, tells me that Donald Cameron’s off down the road and I’ve got his job.
Taking his MSP oath in the chamber at the Scottish Parliament.
“I say I need to talk to my wife and he says well you can but you’ve got half an hour then the press release goes out. You can’t really miss an opportunity like that. I never didn’t enjoy politics, but it was going to be a massive thing because obviously I’m now down in Edinburgh several days a week.
“It’s been an absolute roadshow.”
With his seat in parliament barely warm, Mr Eagle – who is also a farmer just outside Buckie – was to enjoy a promotion to new Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay’s shadow cabinet, taking on the role of Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Fishing.
He continued: “I got on very well with Russell Finlay from when I started and for me he was one of these natural characters, he was more than a politician, there was something lively about his personality.
“I sort of jumped quite quickly into his camp and his team with him when he stood for the leadership. I thought that if Russell won I was keen to become the spokesman for fishing because that’s quite important to me and the north-east. The next thing I knew Russell calls me into his office and said ‘Thanks for your support, I’d love you to be Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Fishing’.
“It was crazy at first, you find yourself shadowing Mary Gougeon, trying to work out what the future of agriculture is, fighting for fishing and whatever that will look like under this Labour government. Land reform is a massive issue at the moment.”
Taking on the role involved yet another steep learning curve having already had to tackle the initial challenges of becoming an MSP. There have certainly been plenty of issues demanding his time both as an MSP and as a Shadow Cabinet Secretary.
“The workload is massive and that I guess is what you would expect, because actually you are there for people.
“I represent the whole of the Highlands and Islands, which is a massive area, so I kind of work with Douglas Ross a bit in Moray and then I’m doing quite a lot in Western Isles and Argyll and Bute, just because they are areas that we haven’t, as a party, done quite enough in before. They’re areas that have a lot of similarities with us over here in Moray.
“The two biggest issues in my inbox are always wind farms and health, they’re the two biggest issues by a light year. You get others; roads are obviously a big issue, as is agriculture but wind farms are a massive issue in the Highlands.
“People aren’t against wind, they’re just trying to understand what the future looks like for the Highlands and Islands with that. We’re in a world where all the parties have signed up for a green future but we’re all slightly different in how we think we can get there.
“Health is another issue and how you deal with things like huge waiting times and so on.”
On a practical level, Mr Eagle noted that one of the biggest initial challenges he faced as an MSP was physically finding his way around the Scottish Parliament building.
His transition to becoming an MSP has obviously had an impact on his family, comprising wife Rachel, two sons and a daughter. Mr Eagle praised his wife’s colleagues at Seafield and Cullen Medical Practice, where she is a GP, for helping accommodate the many changes she has had to adapt to.
Looking ahead to what awaits in 2025, Mr Eagle said: “Scotland has now had an SNP government for 17 years, it’ll be 19 years by the time we get to the Scottish Parliament election 2026, and I guess of us in Scotland have got to sort of ask ourselves what is it we want, what does the future of Scotland look like and is it time for a change of government.
“What will the Reform UK Party look like in Scotland after the next election as they’re predicted to pick up list seats? There are some quite serious questions about what the next Scottish Parliament will look like.
“We’ve got to come back to what is important to Scotland; I would argue health, roads and education. These are fundamental, you’ve got to get these right.
“I think 2026 will be a fascinating election, because if I’m right – and I could be wrong – but if I’m right, this might be the first election in years which doesn’t have its major dividing line in independence, which has tended to be what it has for the last at least two or three Scottish elections, but actually might be more about policy
“If you go back to July, I mean, you would have looked at the polls and thought Labour are going to be the next government in Scotland, no problem. But they’ve had quite a rocky start, of their own doing, really. I think Anas Sarwar’s got a lot of work to do in Scotland if he wants to be credible at trying to make a new government.
“[First Minister] John Swinney’s recent budget was a sort of starting gun for the election. Every day that gets closer to 2026 is just going to get more and more political.”
Although his new job takes him far and wide, Mr Eagle was keen to emphasise the support he and his family have always received from the community of Buckie.He added: “Buckie has been my home for a long, long time.
“I’ve always loved Buckie because people are always very kind and very grateful. I’ve always felt my kids are very safe here and looked after.
“I’d always like to put on my record serving Buckie for five years was an absolute honour and it pains me, actually, that I don’t technically cover Buckie in my MSP role, but I might try and fight to be able to cover it in 2026.”