Foreword:<\/b><\/p>\n
The following interview forms part 3 of a series of interviews conducted during the General Election. The author interviewed four current UoA students and alumni who stood for election for four UK political parties. In this third interview Mustafa speaks to alumnus and Conservative party candidate, Shane Painter. These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n
Can you tell us a little about yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n I am Shane Painter! I\u2019m from just outside Birmingham and lived there until the age of What motivated you to pursue politics while being immersed in a degree<\/strong> My passion for politics began before my university studies, and I’ve been involved in In 2022, I ran as a candidate in the local council elections. This experience was Why the Conservative Party? What key values of the Conservative Party<\/strong> It comes as a surprise that someone so young would be a Conservative. Far too often I know a lot of people criticize our stance on immigration, for example. Our How has your experience been with campaigning as a young candidate?<\/strong><\/p>\n I had a really lovely time on my campaign. I had five key priorities at the heart of my I did do canvassing, but most of what we did was meeting with local businesses, What do you perceive good leadership as? What are the traits of a good leader,<\/strong> It\u2019s someone who says they\u2019re going to do something and then does it. That\u2019s all it I know some people say, \u201cWe need a strong leader,\u201d but if you have someone who is And that\u2019s why we lost this election. Liz Truss, who I voted for, came in and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do X, Y, and Z with the economy, and everything will be fine,\u201d and then everything wasn\u2019t fine, and she lost her credibility overnight. Before that, Boris Johnson said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do X, Y, and Z, and there weren\u2019t any parties,\u201d but then there were parties. Then we had Rishi Sunak, who said, \u201cI\u2019m going to bring down illegal immigration, fix the economy, do X, Y, and Z,\u201d and he didn\u2019t deliver.<\/p>\n People just want a leader who follows through on their promises.<\/p>\n What are the most significant problems Scotland is currently facing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Housing is a major issue. We have rent controls in Scotland that do not work. They Another issue is the drug death crisis\u2014it\u2019s a national shame. Not enough has been What is the long-term plan for you as a young Conservative leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe if I\u2019m fortunate enough, I\u2019ll give some thought to running in the Scottish Foreword: The following interview forms part 3 of a series of interviews conducted during the General Election. The author interviewed four current UoA students and alumni who stood for election for four UK political parties. In this third interview Mustafa speaks to alumnus and Conservative party candidate, Shane Painter. These interviews have been edited for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":21,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[254,383,1110,1108,380,1109,311,1111],"wf_post_folders":[337],"class_list":["post-5306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opine","tag-aberdeen","tag-alumnus","tag-campaign","tag-conservative-party","tag-leadership","tag-local-election","tag-politics","tag-shane-painter"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mustafa Chughtai","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/mustafa05\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PHOTO-2024-09-09-16-43-48-200x300.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Opine<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Opine<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Aberdeen<\/a>","alumnus<\/a>","campaign<\/a>","Conservative Party<\/a>","leadership<\/a>","Local election<\/a>","Politics<\/a>","Shane Painter<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Aberdeen<\/span>","alumnus<\/span>","campaign<\/span>","Conservative Party<\/span>","leadership<\/span>","Local election<\/span>","Politics<\/span>","Shane Painter<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 4 March 2025","modified":"Updated on 3 March 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 4 March 2025 10:00","modified":"Updated on 3 March 2025 20:57"},"featured_img_caption":"Photo provided by Shane Painter","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5313,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306\/revisions\/5313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5306"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n10, then we moved to Shetland. In June, I completed my studies at the University of
\nAberdeen, graduating with a degree in Politics and International Relations. Whenever
\nI get back up to Shetland I spend time with my pet sheep – Pirate – and enjoy
\nkayaking.<\/p>\n
\npertaining to politics?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\npolitics for a while now. Both my university degree and my political experience have
\nreally complemented each other.<\/p>\n
\ninvaluable. I\u2019ve been involved in Conservative party organisations both at university,
\nserving as the chair of the Aberdeen University Conservatives and I currently sit on
\nthe board of the Scottish Young Conservatives (SYC), which has broadened my
\nperspective on youth representation in politics.<\/p>\n
\nprimarily aligned with yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nwe are seen as the party of pensioners, which, in my experience, isn’t the case at all. Before I joined the Conservative Party back in\u2014I think it was 2018\u2014I made a point
\nof actually reading through every other party’s manifesto and seeing which one I
\nthought best aligned with my views. For me, the reason it was the Conservatives was
\nthat, at the core of everything they do, they uphold the basic principle of fairness.<\/p>\n
\nperspective is that we need to take a tough stance on illegal immigration because it’s
\nunfair to the people who come through legally and follow the rules like everyone else.
\nWe think that it\u2019s unfair that people who work hard are then taxed at stupidly high
\nlevels. We believe that if you work hard, it\u2019s fair that you take home what you earn.
\nSo, it was the principle of fairness that attracted me to the Conservatives, but the other
\nkey difference between us and Labour is that progression should be based on merit.<\/p>\n
\ncampaign: standing up for oil and gas, supporting our farmers and fishermen,
\nlowering the tax burden, standing up for our NHS, and focusing on local issues that
\nopposed independence.<\/p>\n
\ngetting to understand their concerns and what they wanted to see, and meeting with
\ndifferent members of the council. When I was doing canvassing, I never had anyone
\nsay, \u201cYou\u2019re too young to be doing this.\u201d Actually, I got a lot of, \u201cIt\u2019s really great to
\nsee someone so young engaged in politics and wanting to make a difference,\u201d whether
\nor not they were voting for me. The nice thing about Orkney and Shetland is that they
\nare small communities. Everyone knows everyone, and if you don\u2019t know that person,
\nyou know their parents or their son or daughter.<\/p>\n
\nand who has shaped your beliefs on this?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nreally is. Someone you can trust, someone who is honest, and someone who\u2019s
\ngenuine.<\/p>\n
\nhonest, trustworthy, and has integrity, that\u2019s the strongest thing they can be because
\nyou can\u2019t trip them up on their core beliefs. For me, the person who shaped that
\nopinion was Barack Obama. He was elected on a massive wave, and he said, \u201cI\u2019m
\ngoing to make healthcare in America more accessible for people,\u201d and he did. He said
\nhe was going to appoint more liberal Supreme Court justices, and he did. I think that\u2019s why he\u2019s so popular, not just in the United States but around the world\u2014because he did what he said he was going to do.<\/p>\n
\nare great if you\u2019re in a property and renting, but if you\u2019re trying to move somewhere
\nor rent for the first time, rents in Scotland are rising faster than in London. The only
\nway to solve this is by building more housing.<\/p>\n
\ndone, and it keeps getting swept under the rug. And finally, our tax burden is too high,
\nstifling growth. In Scotland, if you\u2019re earning over \u00a328,000, you\u2019re taxed more than in
\nthe rest of the UK, which means key workers may choose to move elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\nelections in 2026, but I haven\u2019t given it any serious thought yet. In the nearer future,
\nwe\u2019ve got two leadership elections in Scotland, and I\u2019m looking forward to playing a
\nrole in those campaigns. We\u2019ll see where things go from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"