Age: 50

Education: Leith Academy and George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. Edinburgh University where he gained an LLB (Hons) in law.

Personal details: Married to Sheila, one son, James

Party:Scottish Conservative and Unionists

Political career: Conservative candidate for Edinburgh Central at the 1997 general election. President of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association from 1994 to 1997. In September 1998 he was elected the leader of the Scottish Parliamentary Candidates' Group and led the party's campaign in the first election to the Scottish Parliament. He was voted a regional member for Lothians and is now leader of the Scottish Conservative Parliamentary group.

Interests: Golf, football (Heart of Midlothian), theatre and music.

David McLetchie was little known outside the Conservative Party when he took on the position that commentators had dubbed the "job from hell".

The Tories had lost all their Scottish seats at the 1997 general election, did not have any representation in the European Parliament and had no control over any councils in Scotland.

Their revival in Scotland has not been spectacular but there have been signs that the Edinburgh lawyer has managed to lead his embattled troops back to a position of some respectability.

Ironically for Mr McLetchie, a former opponent of devolution, it was the Scottish Parliament elections that sparked the upturn in fortunes and led to his finest moment as leader - the Ayr by-election victory.

The party has 19 representatives in the Scottish Parliament (mainly thanks to the proportional representation element of the voting), two of Scotland's seven MEPs, and has added about 30 councillors since the football-loving, tax law expert began his tenure.

However, the presence of just a single MP at Westminster is evidence that the party still has much work to do to win back popularity in Scotland.

Mr McLetchie, a former president of the Scottish Conservatives, was not well-known to the Scottish public outside Tory circles when he beat Phil Gallie for the leader's post in 1998.

Despite being a close supporter of the Conservative former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth - a strong anti-devolutionist - Mr McLetchie has embraced the new-found autonomy that the Scottish Parliament has provided.

'Henry's little helpers'

In the spirit of devolution, the Scottish Tories have supported some policies in Scotland, such as free personal care for the elderly, that have been opposed south of the Border.

He has felt most at ease in the parliament's debating chamber where his turn of phrase has produced the necessary uncomfortable dig for executive ministers and belly laughs from MSPs.

He dismissed the Liberal Democrats as "Henry's little helpers" and called the Scottish National Party "a pathetic excuse for an opposition party".

When it came to an argument over the appointment of a new tourism chief, Mr McLetchie retorted: "You have to wonder how much longer we will have to wait before Henry, Wendy and the rest of the executive's hangers-on are informed that they have long outlived their own uselessness."

His sparring with former first minister Henry McLeish produced the fiercest rows.

Drug views

Mr McLeish was clearly riled by Mr McLetchie just days before the first minister resigned. Through gritted teeth in a tension-filled parliament chamber he told the Tory leader that he had entered his "blackest hour" and told him to stop "grubbing around the gutter".

Mr McLetchie is married to Sheila, a theatre nurse at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary and has a 19-year-old son James, by his first marriage.

The experience of nursing his first wife, Barbara, when she was dying of cancer, led him to advocate the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

He said he believed the drug could be used like morphine for pain relief for those suffering terminal illnesses.

But he stressed there was no softening of the party's line on legalising the drug for recreational use.