Stephen Morrison (Scottish Tory activist and PR operative)

Stephen Morrison is a right wing activist. Morrison was active on the right of the Federation of Conservative Students in the early 1980s and became an Edinburgh councillor in the Marchmont ward for the Tories in the mid to late 1980s. In 1988 he was appointed chair of the Scottish Young Conservatives.

Remember those 'ANC' booklets handed out at the Wembley birthday festival? Entitled Nelson Mandela Speaks - although they turned out, of course, to be no such thing - and promptly denounced as a South African dirty trick? The source was, in fact, closer to home; they can be traced directly to the Conservative Party rather than the non-white propaganda unit in Pretoria. Stand up Stephen Morrison, newly appointed chairman of the Scottish Young Conservatives and a member of Edinburgh City Council. The booklet was distributed by his troops from Conservatives Against Apartheid, a pressure group which has now been absorbed into the Scottish YCs.

He was reportedly removed from the list of Tory candidates in 1989:

With the stupid officiousness of party officials there is no end. Especial ly in the case of the Scottish Conservative party. At its regional conference recently a motion in favour of Conservative participation in Northern Ireland elections was moved by a young man called Stephen Morrison. It was carried by the conference in the teeth of the platform. For revenge Mr Morrison has been deleted from the list of Tory party candidates. The official reason given was that he is too young. He is 28, the age at which the secretary of state for Scotland (blameless in this episode) entered parliament, and rather older than the Tory candidate in the Glasgow Central by-election, who is 23.

Three years later he was the Conservative candidate for the constituency of Edinburgh Leith in the 1992 election but withdrew before the election.

FCS role

The influence of the FCS is most conspicuous in Scotland, where Brian Monteith, former national federation chairman, runs Leith Communications, a public relations company, with Stephen Morrison, once an FCS national committee member. Monteith was Scots YC chairman last year, and Morrison, also an Edinburgh councillor, is his successor. The pair work commercially for numerous constituency associations, and organised the successful anti-devolution campaign at the last Scottish Tory conference. Their agency - whose clients include the South African consul in Edinburgh - has reached a shortlist of four for a lucrative Scottish Office contract to popularise government policy north of the border. The political adviser to Malcolm Rifkind, the Scottish Secretary, is Graham Carter, another former FCS activist who stays in close touch with Morrison and Monteith.

PR role

Morrison joins Hall Associates from Leith Communications and his previous experience includes works in Sweden and America. He will start on the Gates Rubber Company and the Campbell Lee computer accounts. According to Nora Farrell, Halls managing director, Morrison's political contacts are a bonus. 'He will be working on mainstream public relations activities as part of our expansion and a growing client portfolio.' Hall Associates public relations staff has grown to 14 and new clients include the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service and the Swilkan Golf Company.

Affiliations

• Federation of Conservative Students
• European Democrat Students Vice-chairman 1982/3, Executive director 1983/4 (the same year as his then future colleague at Leith Communications Brian Monteith was a vice-president)
• Leith Communications 1986-1989